RUSSIA. COUNCIL OF EUROPE INSISTS ON MONITORING HUMAN RIGHTS IN COUNTRY

setting the stage for another spat between Western-run rights and democracy groups and Moscow, the Council of Europe's Secretary General Terry Davis said ahead of talks with Russian officials that Moscow still lacked respect for human rights. 
"Russia has not yet kept all the promises that were made when Russia joined the Council of Europe. And that is why monitoring still takes place," he said in an interview with the Moscow Echo radio.
In particular, Davis said that Russia had broken a pledge to abolish the death penalty and he condemned recent calls by pro-Kremlin lawmakers to introduce the death penalty for "terrorists" in the wake of the Beslan school hostage siege.
"We do not want to descend, to go down to the level of terrorists. We respect human rights, one of the important human rights is the right to life. "And as just as I condemn terrorists for killing people, so I encourage Russia not to break its promise and use the death penalty for terrorists," said Davis.