RUSSIA. SENIOR MP URGES ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY AHEAD OF PACE SESSION

the head of the Federation Council international affairs committee, Mikhail Margelov, said it was necessary to finalize the ratification of the sixth protocol of the Convention on Human Rights on abolishing the death penalty by the end of June 2005.
"I think that the protocol should be ratified, and the death penalty abolished in Russia before the PACE June session," the Russian senator said.
"We must not fear a drop in the ratings, we must move on towards the ratification of the sixth protocol," he said.
Margelov recalled that the abolition of the death penalty was one of the requirements for the Council of Europe to end its monitoring of the country.
Russia joined the Council of Europe in 1996.