Practically, there is no death penalty in Russia, but according to the latest polls, half of Russians wish to bring it back.

Half of Russians wish to reinstate the death penalty

Russia hasn’t completely abolished the death penalty, but there is a moratorium on executions since 1996. It has been initially put forward by the first president of Russia Boris Yeltsin, confirmed by the Constitutional Court in 1999, and the moratorium has been officially extended indefinitely in 2009.

But there are talks about bringing the capital punishment back and these ideas are gaining supporters.

So much so that the latest poll by Levada revealed that nearly half of Russians (49%) want the most hardened criminals to be executed.

In 2017 the share of such supporters was 44%.

In focus groups, Levada’s experts uncovered quite the opposite views among people: Some of them feel that unfair prosecution happens too often, this is why bringing back the capital punishment could create irreparable damage to innocent people. At the same time, some people, and apparently a lot of them, feel that only strong measures can bring back the order in the country.

 Older Russians are more in favour of the capital punishment

• Among the group aged 55+ there are 55% of proponents of the capital punishment.
• 53% of 40-54-year-olds support the death penalty.
• 25-39: 46%
• 18-24: 35%

People with degrees are less likely to wish for capital punishment to be reinstated: 46% vs. those who hasn’t graduated from a university.

A similar survey was conducted by the “Public Opinion” fund in November 2019. They found that 69% of respondents wanted to bring back the death penalty in Russia, while 21% of respondents considered it unacceptable.

According to experts, the current sentiment about harsher punishments could be linked to several controversial cases with heinous crimes against minors in Russia.

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