Independent State Duma deputy Sergey Yushenkov has...

Independent State Duma deputy Sergey Yushenkov has said he believes that the Duma appeal to the president to lift the moratorium on the death penalty "has been staged by the Kremlin". The parliamentarian said he had come to this conclusion after analysing the results of the roll-call vote of his colleagues on this issue.
"First, the initiative to pass this document was made by one of the four pro-presidential coalitions in the Duma - the People's Deputy group. Second, the results of the roll-call vote of this pro-Kremlin 'Four' are very symptomatic," Yushenkov told the press on 15 February.
He pointed to the fact that only a minority of the Unity faction (36 people) voted against the appeal, which in fact urges the head of state to lift the moratorium on the death penalty, while the majority (44 people) preferred not to cast their ballots at all. As for Fatherland - All Russia, Russia's Regions, and People's Deputy, 99 per cent of their members voted to bring back this type of punishment to Russia, the parliamentarian said.
This shows that "either the pro-Kremlin parliament coalitions are not controllable, which is very hard to believe, or that today's parliament appeal to the president was inspired by the Kremlin itself," Yushenkov said.