RUSSIA/MORATORIUM ON EXECUTIONS: LAST STATEMENTS OF RUSSIAN OFFICIALS ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY OF ABROGATION OF THE MORATORIUM ON EXECUTIONS ARE PERFECTLY IN THE MAIN STREAM OF "EMERGENCY MEASURES", WHICH BECAME ALPHA AND OMEGA OF THE PRESENT GOVERNMENTAL RHETORICS. HOWEVER ONLY ON PRESIDENT YELTSIN DEPENDS DESTINY OF BOTH THE MORATORIUM ON EXECUTIONS AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL OBLIGATIONS OF RUSSIA, INCLUDING OFFICIAL ABOLITION OF DEATH PENALTY IN RUSSIA IN 87 DAYS - STATEMENT OF THE RADICAL PARTY

Moscow - Brussels, December 1, 1998. Last statements of a number of Russian officials (including prime minister Primakov) about the opportunity of abrogation of the moratorium on executions are quite perfectly in the main stream of "emergency measures", which became alpha and omega of the present governmental rhetorics.

However, the destiny of already more than two-years old moratorium on executions voluntary taken on itself by Russian Federation, a condition of entering Russia the Council of Europe in 1996, depends now only on the President Yeltsin, because in "technical sense" the moratorium is carried out not on the basis of the law, rejected by state Duma, but exclusively on the basis of President's refusal to examine questions of pardon for everyone sentenced, without what any death sentence can not be given in execution. Thus, the President Yeltsin is in this situation the guarantor for observance of the international legal obligations of Russia.

Let's also remind, that an inalienable part of these obligations, is ratification in three-years term of the Sixth facultative protocol to the European convention basic rights and freedoms forbidding death penalty, and, hence, official abolition of capital punishment in Russia within 87 days from now: not later than on February 26, 1999.

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