RUSSIA. RUSSIA WILL TRY TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY BY THE END OF 2005 - MARGELOV

Russian institutions will make efforts to abolish the death penalty by the end of 2005, said Chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov. "We are actively working on this. We will make maximum efforts to ratify Protocol 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which bans the application of the death penalty. We must do this," Margelov said at a press conference in Moscow.