The murder of a young couple, Alexander and Mariya,...

The murder of a young couple, Alexander and Mariya, apparently by a gang who were after his $60,000 Lexus, sparked fresh debate over the future of the death penalty - on hold in Russia since 1996.
"After this murder it is clear the Russian establishment is not in a position to defend what it holds most dear - its own children," the respected Izvestia newspaper said.
The crime comes at an awkward moment for abolitionists, who include President Vladimir Putin, at the start of a year that spells big changes in Russia's criminal courts system.
The death penalty is still on the books in Russia, but executions, by a single bullet to the head, have not been carried out for years.
The Constitutional Court has ruled that as long as most Russian regions do not have jury trials, no court could hand down a death sentence. But by the end of 2002 court reform will have made jury trials the norm for serious cases, paving the way for courts to start imposing death sentences once again.
Under a 1996 moratorium introduced by Putin's predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, such sentences would not be carried out. But death penalty opponents worry the moratorium may not hold up.
"Once juries start passing death sentences Putin will have difficulty convincing people otherwise," State Duma (lower house) deputy Boris Nadezhdin, whose Union of Right-wing Forces faction backs abolition, said.
Yeltsin signed a protocol committing Russia to eliminate the death penalty to join the Council of Europe human rights organisation. But parliament has yet to ratify it or act to scrap the penalty from the criminal code.
An overwhelming number of people favour capital punishment and debate is fuelled by Russian anger over killings blamed on rebels from breakaway Chechnya and organised crime. A poll by research institute MGSA published showed 89 percent of Muscovites favour the death penalty.
Capital punishment advocates span the social spectrum with law enforcement officials finding themselves on the same side as Soviet-era dissident writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
"The people of Russia are against removing execution for appalling crimes," said Gennady Raikov, leader of the left-leaning People's Deputy faction in parliament.