Russia may refuse to pair up with the USA to fight...

Russia may refuse to pair up with the USA to fight terrorism if the Americans persist in keeping the death penalty, Russia's envoy to the European Court of Human Rights Pavel Laptev told reporters.
President Putin has made it clear that Russia is determined to renounce the punishment, the envoy said. The country's pledge to co-operate with the USA in combating terrorism also runs counter to its commitment to the European Convention on Human Rights, the envoy said.As any other signatory to the convention, Russia has no right to extradite criminals to the USA "as there are no guarantees that an electric chair or a fatal injection will not be applied (to them)", the envoy said. "As soon as a European country extradites a criminal a complaint follows immediately," Laptev said, citing the court's recent ruling that has found Britain guilty of the violation of this human right. Given the ECHR's case law, the next country to extradite a person to the USA will inevitably find itself in Britain's shoes, Laptev said.