MOSCOW, Nov. 11, 1998 -- (Agence France Presse) Russian Interior Minister Sergei Stepashin has promised tougher law and order enforcement, declaring that serious criminals should be sentenced to death.

"A thief should go to prison, but a gangster should be killed," Stepashin said on national NTV television Tuesday.

Russia has yet to abolish the death penalty, in spite of promises it made to do so on joining the Council of Europe almost three years ago.

Stepashin referred to high-ranking figures in Russia's corruption-soaked political and banking circles, and said that nine regional administrative officials have been arrested since the start of the year.

The nation's top cop maintained that his department had managed to wrest some half a billion dollars "out the hands of bank robbers."

Crime in Russia, in particular organized crime, has risen sharply in recent months, largely in connection with the country's worsening economic situation, Stepashin said during a recent trip to Europe.

He said gang bosses had been concentrating their efforts on high-profile white-collar crime, largely the exporting of capital.