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.
"We hope that a law will finally be passed abolishing the death penalty in this country," he said. The moratorium imposed on the death penalty remained in force, but Russia committed itself to abolishing capital punishment when it joined the Council of Europe, he said.