Russia
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Moratorium on executions
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · In 1996, the then President Boris Yeltsin imposed a...
- News items in the archive
- 461
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Russia is classified as Moratorium on executions in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 461 news items on Russia, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- FEBRUARY 24, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. RUSSIANS IN FAVOUR OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, POLL
seventy-four percent of Russian citizens interviewed in a survey said they considered death sentences acceptable, 15% took the opposite view, and ten per cent were undecided.
- FEBRUARY 17, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. BESLAN ATTACKER SHOULD BE SENTENCED TO DEATH - NORTH OSSETIAN LEADER
Nurpashi Kulayev, the sole surviving member of the group that seized Beslan school No. 1 in September 2004, deserves the death penalty, North Ossetian leader Taimuraz Mamsurov said.
- FEBRUARY 16, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. BESLAN SUSPECT'S LAWYER APPEALS FOR 'FAIR' SENTENCE AMID CALLS FOR EXECUTION
the lawyer for the only surviving alleged member of the Chechen commando unit responsible for the 2004 Beslan school massacre appealed for a "fair" verdict for his client.
- FEBRUARY 14, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. BESLAN MOTHERS CALL FOR RESTORING DEATH PENALTY IN RUSSIA
the Beslan Mothers, a group of women who lost their children in the deadly school siege of 2004 in Russia’s southern province near Chechnya, called for restoration of death penalty.
- FEBRUARY 9, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. PUTIN'S HUMAN RIGHTS ADVISOR URGES DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION
Russia should abolish the death penalty in the near future, presidential council for civil society and human rights development Chairman Ella Pamfilova said.
- FEBRUARY 9, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. RUSSIA ASKS DEATH PENALTY FOR BESLAN HOSTAGE-TAKER
Deputy Prosecutor-General Nikolai Shepel asked judges to pass the death penalty on the sole surviving hostage-taker from the 2004 Beslan school massacre that killed more than 300 people, half of them children.
- FEBRUARY 9, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. DECISION TO SENTENCE BESLAN TERRORIST TO DEATH SLAMMED
Russian human rights organizations slammed the decision to sentence Nurpashi Kulayev to death.
- FEBRUARY 9, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. DUMA NOT TO RESUME DEATH PENALTY FOR BESLAN TERRORIST
the Russian State Duma will not lift the moratorium on the death penalty to punish Nurpasha Kulayev, the only surviving terrorist who participated in the Beslan school seizure in September 2004, vice speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament Vl
- FEBRUARY 9, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. SENIOR MPS SPEAK UP ON DEATH PENALTY FOR TERRORIST
Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the State Duma's committee on civil, criminal, arbitration and procedural law, said that prosecutors' request for the death penalty for the man being tried for involvement in the Beslan terrorist attack that killed 331 people
- FEBRUARY 7, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. STEPS MAY BE TAKEN TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY, PUTIN
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested he might take steps towards abolishing the death penalty in Russia.
- FEBRUARY 1, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. "NO MAJORITY SUPPORT" FOR DEATH PENALTY ABOLITION, KOSACHEV
according to Konstantin Kosachev, head of the State Duma committee for international affairs, there was no majority support in Russia for the abolition of the death penalty.
- JANUARY 23, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
COUNCIL OF EUROPE. COE WANTS RUSSIA TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY
Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis called on Russia to ratify a protocol banning the death penalty but admitted that Russia had never violated its death penalty moratorium introduced in 1996.
- JANUARY 20, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. COUNCIL OF EUROPE PRESIDENCY SHOULD PROMOTE DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM, FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN
Russia's presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe should help advocates of the death penalty moratorium to persuade the majority of State Duma MPs of the feasibility of the sixth protocol ratification which presupposes the cancell
- JANUARY 1, 2006RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Russia is committed to abolishing the death penalty as a member of the Council of Europe
Russia is committed to abolishing the death penalty as a member of the Council of Europe
- DECEMBER 27, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. RUSSIA MAY ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY IN SPRING - MP
"I expect Protocol No. 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which abolishes capital punishment, to be ratified during the spring session of the State Duma [parliament's lower house]," head of the State Duma international affairs committee Konstan
- OCTOBER 29, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN. 'RUSSIAN PLOTTER' PASSPORT PROBE
it was reported that Russia was seeking consular access to Akhlas Ahmed Akhlak, a Russian man who Pakistan had sentenced to death for allegedly plotting to kill President Pervez Musharraf.
- OCTOBER 25, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. LIFE IMPRISONMENT MAY BE WORSE THAN DEATH - CHURCH OFFICIAL
Father Mikhail Dudko, the public relations head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Foreign Church Relations Department, said that while discussing whether or not the moratorium on the death penalty should be lifted in Russia, one should be aware that life impri
- OCTOBER 18, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. DUMA COMMITTEE CHIEF AGAINST DEATH PENALTY IN RUSSIA
State Duma security committee chairman Vladimir Vasiliyev said he supported the idea of abolishing the death penalty in Russia.
- OCTOBER 11, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. DUMA SHOULD ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY SOON - DUMA DEPUTY
the Russian parliament should ratify a document abolishing the death penalty in Russia by the end of 2005, said Chairman of the State Duma Civil, Criminal, Arbitration, and Procedural Law Committee Pavel Krasheninnikov.
- OCTOBER 11, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. RUSSIA WILL TRY TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY BY THE END OF 2005 - MARGELOV
Russian institutions will make efforts to abolish the death penalty by the end of 2005, said Chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov.
- OCTOBER 9, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. COE’S HEAD REMINDS RUSSIA TO FORBID DEATH PENALTY
Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis expressed hope that Russia would ratify the sixth protocol to the European Convention of Human Rights.
- OCTOBER 5, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Russia. Daghestan Minister Calls For Death Penalty For Terrorists
Daghestan's interior minister called for tougher punishment for alleged terrorists. In an interview with Russia's "Izvestia" daily, Adilgerei Magomedtagirov said that "terrorists" who had caused other people's deaths should themselves be sentenced to "the
- OCTOBER 4, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
PAKISTAN. RUSSIA DEMANDS EXPLANATION OVER CITIZEN FACING DEATH PENALTY IN PAKISTAN
the Russian embassy in Islamabad requested that the Pakistani Foreign Ministry provide an official explanation and organize a meeting between Russian representatives and Akhlak Akhlas, official Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin announced.
- OCTOBER 3, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
COUNCIL OF EUROPE. PACE WANTS RUSSIA TO RATIFY PROTOCOL ABOLISHING DEATH PENALTY
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe President Rene van der Linden said the European community would urge Russia to ratify the Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, which abolishes the death penalty, as soon as possible.
- SEPTEMBER 19, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. REFERENDUM TO DECIDE DEATH PENALTY ISSUE - GLAZIEV
abolition of the death penalty in Russia should be decided by a referendum, leader of the State Duma's Rodina fraction Sergei Glaziev said.
- SEPTEMBER 9, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. KOSACHYOV HOPES DUMA WILL OUTLAW CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
it was reported that Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the State Duma, hoped that the Duma would ratify the sixth protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights, which stipulated the abolishment of capital punishment,
- AUGUST 31, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. NORTH OSSETIAN PRESIDENT CALLS FOR END TO DEATH PENALTY MORATORIUM
Taymuraz Mamsurov, the president of North Ossetia, a North Caucasus republic within Russia, called for the moratorium on the death penalty in the country to be ended.
- AUGUST 29, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. COUNTRY TO FINISH DEATH PENALTY DISCUSSION IN 2006, PARLIAMENTARIAN
Russia plans to finish a national discussion process on abolishing the death penalty by November 2006, Mikhail Margelov, the chairman of the Federation Council's international affairs committee, said.
- AUGUST 28, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. UNITED RUSSIA WANTS TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY BEFORE 2007, RUSSIAN PARLIAMENTARIAN
the United Russia party was making concrete efforts to abolish death penalty in Russia before 2007, a member of the Russian parliament said at the opening of the Assistance to the Formation of the New Europe international seminar in Pskov.
- AUGUST 8, 2005RussiaDEATH PENALTY
RUSSIA. DUMA LIKELY TO PASS BILL ABOLISHING DEATH PENALTY
the State Duma planned to pass a bill ratifying the Council of Europe's Protocol No.6 concerning abolition of the death penalty, Duma Legislation Committee Chairman Pavel Krasheninnikov said.