Alexander Yakovenko, an official representative of...

Alexander Yakovenko, an official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that new reasons had arisen for Russia to ratify the protocol on abolishing the death penalty. "The parliamentary elections in late 2003 have created a situation that is in many ways new to Russia. New conditions arose that favor starting the process to ratify protocol number 6 [of the European human rights convention on the abolishment of the death penalty]," Yakovenko said. He said that Russia would be obliged to abolish the death penalty when it joined the Council of Europe and that a moratorium on the death penalty had been in effect in the country since 1996. The protocol on abolishing the death penalty had been sent to the State Duma for ratification in 1999.