They may be ill-advised, but I do admire the sort of nation where these changes to the law are required in the first place.

Maybe their logic is: in order to beat Russia you must become Russia

(which I strongly disagree with).

Yeah, since the attacking force should be at least three times as large as the defending force, we must become three times as bad as Russia.

(Please don't).

I would assume it's just about increasing efficiency of "catching the bad guys". AI and dragnets are much easier to catch people with than manual processing, and as with any other company you want to use the most efficient tools possible and rarely consider the consequences.

Never attribute to malice…

Ha, that's what the spooks always say but it's pure malice all the way down.

People in control didn't end up there due their stupidity.

The malicious use the stupid. So it's kind of both.

Where there's smoke...