Russian presidential aide on pardon matters and prominent...

Russian presidential aide on pardon matters and prominent writer Anatoly Pristavkin spoke out categorically against a national referendum on re-introducing the death penalty in Russia.
Russian society "has not learned to pardon, but it will eagerly kill and will widely approve of the death penalty," Pristavkin said at a press conference in Moscow.
"If we do not oppose the introduction of the death penalty, society will agree to this," as "we are surrounded by hopeless criminality, and everyone feels in danger outside," Pristavkin noted. However, he said, one should not blindly follow these "understandable feelings."
There are a lot of "badly skilled judges in Russia, and a lot of judicial mistakes are committed," the presidential aide said. With the introduction of the death penalty in Russia, "politics will play a more important role than the law," and the death penalty will be used "for eliminating witnesses."
The writer cited statistical data, according to which the number of grave crimes has declined after the moratorium on the death penalty was imposed in Russia. From 1990 to 1995, the number of murders a year was 30,000, and after the moratorium was imposed, they declined to 28,000.
"Everybody knows that the death penalty does not affect the crime rate," Pristavkin said.