The head of the country's Pardons Commission was quoted...

The head of the country's Pardons Commission was quoted as saying that the moratorium on the death penalty in Russia, imposed despite strong public opposition, has not triggered a rise in crime.
Writer Anatoly Pristavkin, in an interview with the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta, said introduction of the moratorium at the behest of the Council of Europe meant that death row no longer existed in Russia."There are no longer people with a death sentence hanging over them," Pristavkin told the daily. "Even if in some places, like Dagestan (southern Russia), death sentences are handed down, the Supreme Court automatically commutes them to life imprisonment."
Pristavkin said figures for murders committed in Russia since the imposition of the moratorium had remained stable at about 30,000 per year. "Though we should not be pleased at any such statistic, it is clear that there has been no deterioration," he said. "The dynamics have remained the same."