A number of Russian renowned scientists, writers and...

A number of Russian renowned scientists, writers and public figures have sent a letter to the State Duma, calling for the abolition of the death penalty.
Anatoly Pristavkin, former head of the presidential pardon commission and incumbent advisor to the president, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alexeyeva, poet Andrei Voznesensky, poet Bella Akhmadulina, actor Natalia Fateyeva, Academician Alexei Yablokov and General Director of the Russian Pen Center Alexander Tkachenko are among the signatories of the letter. All in all, the letter is signed by 40 people. They call on the State Duma "to vote for the ratification of protocol 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights and legalize the abolition of the death penalty in Russia."
"Under the current circumstances in Russia, the return to the death penalty is especially fraught with the danger for law-abiding citizens to become victims of unprofessional and unscrupulous investigation," the letter says.
"It is most important to make punishment inevitable instead of more severe, and that will be an efficient measure against crime," it notes. The authors of the letter refer to international statistics, which shows that "tougher punishment has never resulted in an automatic decline in the crime rate."