A recent poll of 1,600 Russians found that only 52% support the death penalty, a sharp decline from 2002, when 73% said they supported it. Two years ago, 61% were in favor of capital punishment. Russia currently has a moratorium on the death penalty that was put in place in 1996 by President Yeltsin, shortly before Russia signed a relevant protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights. Russia’s high court has ruled that even death sentences cannot be handed down. Hundreds of those on death row had their sentences commuted to life.
(“Fewer Russian citizens support death penalty — poll,” Interfax, in Russia Behind the Headlines, July 14, 2014). See International and Public Opinion.
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