"There are no more restrictions on the return of the death penalty in Russia, but everything will depend on the criminal situation in the country – the moratorium can be maintained if everything is calm," said Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev in an interview, APA reports citing RIA News”.
According to Medvedev, there is a legal position on this subject and a number of decisions of the Constitutional Court, the motive for the adoption of which was Russia’s participation in the conventions of the Council of Europe. “Now (after Russia’s withdrawal from the CE – ed. note), these conventions have lost their force for us,” the agency’s interlocutor said.
In 2009, the Russian Constitutional Court ruled that the courts in Russia could no longer impose death sentences and recognized the impossibility of imposing the death penalty.
“And this is a sovereign decision (CC), it really has nothing to do directly with participation in the Council of Europe, although there is no doubt that there is an internal connection here. Now there are no restrictions in this sense, but this is a very complex issue that concerns not only the legal, but also the moral component, since even the main, canonical sources of various religions answer this question in very different ways. And, first of all, they pay attention to this when discussing the topic of the death penalty in a particular country,” Medvedev said.
He noted that the legal positions of the Constitutional Court “are based on the current legal order, on the current criminogenic situation.” “I proceed from the fact that if everything is calm, then these legal positions can remain the same as they were. But legal positions are also not eternal, if something changes in the life of society, then these legal positions can also be revised,” Medvedev said.