RUSSIA'S REFUSAL TO ABOLISH DEATH PENALTY 'STUPID' - PACE RAPPORTEUR

the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on Russia to abolish the death penalty, and a Greek MP said Russia's refusal to do so was "stupid." "We're told that public opinion in Russia is not ready to abolish the death penalty, which is, I would say, absolutely stupid because you don't apply the death penalty," PACE rapporteur Theodoros Pangalos told journalists in Moscow. Although Russia imposed a moratorium on the death penalty shortly after it joined the Council of Europe in 1996, it did not formally abolish capital punishment within three years, as membership of the organization requires.