The work of the Russian presidential clemency commission...

The work of the Russian presidential clemency commission has been suspended, and its members have apprehensions that it might be completely dissolved, the commission's head, prominent Russian writer Anatoly Pristavkin, said.
"Someone is apparently itching to shut down our commission, which, by the way, works on a voluntary basis," Pristavkin said.
These plans might be connected with "frequent remarks made lately by politicians and other officials" in favour of abolishing the moratorium on the death penalty currently in force in Russia, he said.