Russia must retain the moratorium on the death penalty,...

Russia must retain the moratorium on the death penalty, Justice Minister Yuri Chaika told a news conference.
Chaika, two former Russian justice ministers, Pavel Krasheninnikov and Sergei Stepashin, as well as Sergei Lushchikov, who was a justice minister of the USSR, were in Veliky Novgorod for a field session of the Justice Ministry collegium, held on the occasion of 200th anniversary of the Russian Justice System.
Krasheninnikov, Stepashin and Lushchikov supported Chaika on the issue of death penalty moratorium. What must stop criminals from committing crimes is the inevitability of punishment rather than its severity, the three former ministers believe.