RUSSIA. MOST RUSSIANS AGAINST ABOLISHMENT OF DEATH PENALTY, SPEAKER

Russia has not formally abolished the death penalty because such a move would not get the support of the majority of the population, the speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament said.
"I personally am an opponent of the capital punishment, but unfortunately we have few such opponents," Sergei Mironov told the Council of Europe. "Supporters of the capital punishment in the Russian federation are great in number because they remember the criminal problems and the terrorism of the 1990s and the beginning of this century."