(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Many people in Russia think capital punishment should be fully re-instated and applied, according to a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center. 44 per cent of respondents share this opinion.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Many people in Russia think capital punishment should be fully re-instated and applied, according to a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center. 44 per cent of respondents share this opinion.
Conversely, 18 per cent of respondents say lawmakers should completely abolish the death penalty, while 29 per cent would preserve the current state of moratorium.
Both the Soviet Union and Russia contemplated the death penalty as punishment for several crimes. Executions were usually carried out by firing squad. Russian president Boris Yeltsin introduced a decree to enact a "gradual cessation" of the practice. In 1997, Yeltsin signed a moratorium on capital punishment, which remains in place today.
Russian voters renewed the State Duma in December 2007. United Russia (YR)—whose candidate list was headed by then president Vladimir Putin—secured 64.1 per cent of the vote and 315 of the legislature’s 450 seats. On that same month, Putin endorsed Dmitry Medvedev as a presidential candidate, and Medvedev said it would be of the "utmost importance" to have Putin as prime minister.
In March 2008, Medvedev easily won Russia’s presidential election with 70.28 per cent of the vote. In May, Medvedev was sworn in as president. His nomination of Putin as prime minister was confirmed by the State Duma in a 392-56 vote.
In November 2009, Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled that the moratorium on capital punishment—which expired last year—had to be extended until the Russian Federation acts to completely ban executions.
Valery Zorkin, the court’s head, explained that the end of the moratorium "does not make it possible to apply the death penalty on Russian territory" because the country has signed on to international treaties banning the use of capital punishment.
Polling Data
How would you solve the question of the application of the death penalty in Russia?
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It should be completely abolished by the legislatures
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18%
|
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It should be allowed as it stands now (moratorium)
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29%
|
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It should be fully enacted and used
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44%
|
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Hard to answer
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10%
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Source: Russian Public Opinion Research Center
Methodology: Interviews with 1,600 Russian adults, conducted on Jan. 23 and Jan. 24, 2010. Margin of error is 3.4 per cent.
