With the introduction of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of 1996

With the introduction of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of 1996 the number of capital offences was reduced from 33 to five. These are: premeditated murder with aggravating circumstances; assassination attempt against a state or public figure; assassination attempt against a person administering justice or conducting a preliminary investigation; assassination attempt against a law enforcement officer and genocide.
Russia is committed to abolish the death penalty as a member of the Council of Europe since 28 February 1996. In August 1996, then-President Boris Yeltsin, in maintaining international obligations, imposed a moratorium on executions, still in effect. However, executions were reportedly carried out between 1996 and 1999 in the Chechen Republic.
In 1996, Russia signed the Protocol Number Six to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms concerning the abolition of the death penalty, but it has not ratified the document yet.
The moratorium has gone on, despite the continued resistance of the Duma (the Lower House of Russian Congress) to abolish the death penalty.
In December 2006, the Russian Duma approved the extension of the moratorium on the death penalty by three years, fixing its end-date in 2010. However, in November 2009, Russia’s Constitutional Court prolonged the moratorium, which was due to expire on 1 January 2010, until capital punishment is banned completely. After the Constitutional Court’s decision, 697 death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
For his part, President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly called for its abolition, explaining that “The most efficient weapon in the struggle against crime is the inevitability of punishment, and not the cruelty of punishment.”
On 9 February 2013, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said that he saw nothing wrong with the possibility of a return of the death penalty in Russia. “I may incur anger from opponents of the death penalty. But as a citizen, not as a Minister, I don’t think it would be wrong to exercise this punishment for such criminals,” Kolokoltsev said in an interview with NTV, commenting on the reports about the murder of girls in Tatarstan and the Irkutsk region.
His words, nevertheless, prompted several comments in which officials from the top levels of the legislature and executive assured the public there were no plans to re-introduce the death penalty in Russia.
Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said the President’s position on the issue is “longstanding and consistent,” and there were no changes to it, adding that in his view Putin was more in favour of a total abolition of the death penalty. Peskov also stressed that Vladimir Kolokoltsev was expressing only his personal opinion. “When we imposed a moratorium on the death penalty we actually abolished it, which has been recognized by the Constitutional Court. Theoretically, speculation may continue. But if the speculation is to be given a practical turn, a new Constitution would have to be adopted,” head of the Presidential Human Rights Council Mikhail Fedotov told Interfax. “This issue was closed by the Constitutional Court, whose resolutions have the supreme legal force and cannot be scrapped,” he said.
The speaker of the Lower House, Sergey Naryshkin, also spoke out against the return of the death penalty. Pavel Krasheninnikov, head of the State Duma Legislative Committee, told reporters that although such measure could calm public opinion, it will not get rid of the “root of evil” and therefore should be avoided. “The State should not become a tool for revenge,” Krasheninnikov said, adding that only the unavoidability of punishment can reduce the crime rate, not its cruelty.
Some 62 per cent of Russians say the death penalty should be restored, a Public Opinion Fund poll found in April 2012. Only 5 per cent think it should be abolished.
Instead, a poll, carried out by the Levada Center on 6-10 June 2013 among 1,601 people in 45 Russian regions, showed that a total of 38 per cent of Russians support the resumption of the death penalty in the country, against 33 per cent in 2012. Sixteen per cent, compared to 28 per cent in 2012, said it was necessary to expand the application of the death penalty. Twenty-three per cent of respondents supported keeping the existing death penalty moratorium, while only 14 per cent said so in 2012. A total of 13 per cent said capital punishment had to be cancelled completely, while 10 per cent shared the same point of view in 2012. Eleven per cent failed to answer. When asked with what means crime is to be fought now, 49 per cent of respondents said “making punishment for criminal offences more severe” and 47 per cent said “fair and impartial court investigation of criminal offences.” Almost a third (28 per cent) proposed enhancing police and special services work and expanding their authority. Six per cent urged allowing citizens to carry and use weapons to protect life and property.
On 29 April 2013, the Russian Federation was reviewed under the Universal Periodic Review of the UN Human Rights Council. In its National Report, the Government said that “the ban on the imposition of the death penalty by the courts has been upheld by a Constitutional Court ruling of 19 November 2009. In essence, that decision finalizes the legal ban on such punishment in Russia.” The recommendations to adopt the necessary measures to proceed, as soon as possible, to abolishing the de jure death penalty, will be examined by the Russian Federation, which will provide its responses no later than the 24^th session of the Human Rights Council in September 2013.
On 20 December 2012, Russia co-sponsored and voted in favour of the Resolution on a Moratorium on the Use of the Death Penalty at the UN General Assembly.