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.
Margelov said a decision on abolishing the death penalty, which was currently only subject to a moratorium in Russia, had to be reached by the end of Russia's chairmanship of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers in November 2006. Margelov said it was a tough decision to make in the wake of the 2004 atrocity in the North Caucasus town of Beslan, when hostage takers killed 330 people, 186 of them children, in a local school. However, the senator said the move was necessary. "Politicians must assume responsibility for this decision," he said.