RUSSIA. REFERENDUM TO DECIDE DEATH PENALTY ISSUE - GLAZIEV

abolition of the death penalty in Russia should be decided by a referendum, leader of the State Duma's Rodina fraction Sergei Glaziev said.
"That is an issue for public choice and it should be decided at a referendum without referring to the fact that it is indecent to be in the Council of Europe with the death penalty," Glaziev said at a press conference.
"The death penalty is a difficult issue and it has to have a more fundamental explanation than we have. We introduced a moratorium on the death penalty only because Russia had become a member of the Council of Europe. The argumentation is beyond criticism," Glaziev said.
"I am not a death penalty advocate; however, in this case I believe that we should make a decision ourselves, to keep the death penalty or abolish it, without referring to European laws," Glaziev said.
Glaziev also said that "it is quite possible that society is not mature enough to abolish the death penalty."