Capital punishment in Russia has been indefinitely suspended, although it is legally allowed (with the only method being shooting). There exists both an implicit moratorium established by the President and an explicit one, established by the nation's highest court. Russia has not executed anyone since 1996, and the regulations of the Council of Europe prohibit it from doing so at any time in the future. However, the death penalty still remains codified.
In the recent years, President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia will retain its moratorium at least until 2010. In November 2009, the Constitutional Court of Russia extended the ban.
Famous quotes containing the words capital punishment, capital, punishment and/or russia:
“We saw the machinery where murderers are now executed. Seven have been executed. The plan is better than the old one. It is quietly done. Only a few, at the most about thirty or forty, can witness [an execution]. It excites nobody outside of the list permitted to attend. I think the time for capital punishment has passed. I would abolish it. But while it lasts this is the best mode.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“The capital is become an overgrown monster; which like a dropsical head, will in time leave the body and extremities without nourishment and support.”
—Tobias Smollett (1721–1771)
“Inside, the others sat at their carpentry, varnishing, sorting, gluing, had still two years, five years to do. He was standing at the carstop.
The punishment begins.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)
“In Russia there is an emigration of intelligence: émigrés cross the frontier in order to read and to write good books. But in doing so they contribute to making their fatherland, abandoned by spirit, into the gaping jaws of Asia that would like to swallow our little Europe.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)