The renewed pledge by the Russian authorities to fulfil their commitment on joining the Council of Europe on 28 February 1996 to abolish the death penalty within three years is a welcome development, Amnesty International said. However, we remain seriously concerned at the deep gap emerging between the Governments declared intentions and the reality. No official moratorium on executions has been put in place in the Russian Federation, although the authorities claim that no executions have taken place since August 1996.
People continue to be sentenced to death.
The organization is concerned that the Presidential list of federal laws to be adopted this year relating to human rights, as part of the initiatives to mark the Year of Human Rights in the Russian Federation declared by President Yeltsin, does not mention the introduction in national law of a moratorium on executions. Also, there is no mention of ratifying Protocol 6 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, relating to the abolition of the death penalty. Amnesty International is especially concerned about the Governments official opinion on the draft law on a moratorium, signed on 30 April by the Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, that the death penalty should not be abolished because of the expense of providing life imprisonment for some 1,300 death penalty prisoners by the year 2000. All existing death sentences should be commuted . No further death sentences should be handed down.