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
- JUNE 8, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Qatari prosecutors demanded the death penalty for two...
Qatari prosecutors demanded the death penalty for two Russian spies accused of killing a Chechen rebel leader
- JUNE 7, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
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
- MAY 22, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Bulgarian officials and politicians continued soliciting...
Bulgarian officials and politicians continued soliciting international support for five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death by a Libyan court on charges of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the AIDS virus
- MAY 5, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
A Chinese court in Yunnan province, Southwest China,...
A Chinese court in Yunnan province, Southwest China, pronounced null and void the death penalty handed down to Russian citizen Yelena Timchenko who was arrested at Kunming airport for carrying more than one kilogram of heroin in 2001
- APRIL 21, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Russia voted in favour of the resolution on the death...
Russia voted in favour of the resolution on the death penalty at the 60th UN Commission on Human Rights
- APRIL 16, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Russia's rights activists decried the failure of the...
Russia's rights activists decried the failure of the UN's top human rights body for the third year in a row to censure Russia over abuses in its war-torn republic of Chechnya
- APRIL 15, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
The United Nations Human Rights Commission rejected...
The United Nations Human Rights Commission rejected an attempt by the European Union to urge Russia to prevent executions, torture and other human rights abuses in war-torn Chechnya
- APRIL 13, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
The Duma's deputy speaker Lyubov Sliska of the pro-president...
The Duma's deputy speaker Lyubov Sliska of the pro-president United Russia party, spoke out in favour of capital punishment for those found guilty of terrorism
- APRIL 8, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Russia is committed to abolishing the death penalty as a member of the Council of Europe (since February 28, 1996).
Russia is committed to abolishing the death penalty as a member of the Council of Europe (since February 28, 1996).
- MARCH 25, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Vladimir Lukin, the commissioner for human rights in...
Vladimir Lukin, the commissioner for human rights in the Russian Federation, said that Russia should ratify a Council of Europe protocol that forbade capital punishment
- MARCH 25, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Vladimir Lukin, the commissioner for human rights in...
Vladimir Lukin, the commissioner for human rights in the Russian Federation, said that Russia should ratify a Council of Europe protocol that forbade capital punishment
- MARCH 12, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
It was announced that Yelena Timchenko, a Russian woman...
It was announced that Yelena Timchenko, a Russian woman sentenced to death in China in March 2002 for drugs trafficking, could have her punishment eased
- FEBRUARY 19, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Senior Deputy Speaker of the Russian State Duma Lyubov...
Senior Deputy Speaker of the Russian State Duma Lyubov Sliska said she thought the moratorium on the death penalty would be abolished, but not soon
- FEBRUARY 17, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Russia's Criminal Code should not be applicable to...
Russia's Criminal Code should not be applicable to terrorists and "they must be placed outside the law" and executed on the spot, the deputy speaker of Russia's State Duma, the lower house of parliament, and the co-chairman of Rodina bloc Dmitry Rogozin s
- FEBRUARY 10, 2004RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Debates on death penalty for terrorism should be unemotional...
Debates on death penalty for terrorism should be unemotional and linked to the current events and Russia's international commitments, heads of Duma committees said
- DECEMBER 28, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
An international human rights group asked the Russian...
An international human rights group asked the Russian prosecutor-general not to extradite three Tajik nationals arrested by Russian security forces earlier in 2003
- DECEMBER 16, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, in an interview...
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, in an interview with the Vremya novostei daily, said that the Iraqis themselves should judge Saddam and decide his fate, as an internation tribunal for Iraq does not exist
- DECEMBER 11, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Ella Pamfilova, head of the presidential human rights...
Ella Pamfilova, head of the presidential human rights commission, declared her opposition to lifting Russia's moratorium on capital punishment
- NOVEMBER 5, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
A Thai court sentenced a Russian national to death...
A Thai court sentenced a Russian national to death for a bank robbery during which a police officer was shot dead
- OCTOBER 6, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Kazakh TV's first channel reported that the West Kazakhstan...
Kazakh TV's first channel reported that the West Kazakhstan Regional court had sentenced a Russian citizen to death for killing four people
- AUGUST 12, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov suggested reinstating...
State Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov suggested reinstating capital punishment in Russia for terrorism and other grave crimes
- AUGUST 2, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Kemerovo Region governor Aman Tuleyev called for public...
Kemerovo Region governor Aman Tuleyev called for public executions of terrorists and drugs traffickers in Russia, saying it was the only way to deal with such crimes
- JULY 22, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
State Duma Speaker Gennadiy Seleznev said he believed...
State Duma Speaker Gennadiy Seleznev said he believed the death penalty should be introduced for terrorists
- APRIL 24, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Russia voted in favour of the resolution on the death...
Russia voted in favour of the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights, in Geneva
- APRIL 11, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Human Rights Watch warned that Russian soldiers were...
Human Rights Watch warned that Russian soldiers were carrying out human rights abuses in Chechnya despite a controversial referendum in March that Moscow said would bring peace to breakaway republic
- APRIL 8, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Twenty-two European countries submitted a proposed...
Twenty-two European countries submitted a proposed resolution to the UN Human Rights Commission accusing Russia of grave rights violations in the breakaway republic of Chechnya
- MARCH 11, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
The Supreme Shari'ah Court of the Chechen Republic...
The Supreme Shari'ah Court of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria released a text regarding the planned referendum to be held in Chechnya by the Russian Federation on March 23 asking voters whether they want to accept the Russian Constitution
- FEBRUARY 12, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
The Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner Alvaro...
The Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles accused Russian troops of "criminal" behaviour in Chechnya and insisted that military abuses against civilians must not remain unpunished
- FEBRUARY 12, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
The Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner Alvaro...
The Council of Europe's Human Rights Commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles accused Russian troops of "criminal" behaviour in Chechnya and insisted that military abuses against civilians must not remain unpunished
- JANUARY 29, 2003RussiaDEATH PENALTY
Human Rights Watch issued a report condemning the Russian...
Human Rights Watch issued a report condemning the Russian government's human rights policies in Chechnya