The State Duma proposed executions for corruption. But Russia has a moratorium on the death penalty. Could such a bill really be passed?

The State Duma proposed executions for corruption. But Russia has a moratorium on the death penalty. Could such a bill really be passed?

Last week, deputies from A Just Russia proposed introducing the death penalty for corrupt officials who undermine “the country’s defense capability and the safety of its citizens.”

But how does this bill relate to the current moratorium on the death penalty and the Constitution? Could it be passed, and if it is passed, could it be carried out?

An OVD-Info lawyer explains:

“Formally, the bill, which is intended to intimidate officials, could be passed. But that would not отменит the moratorium on the death penalty.

The death penalty as a form of punishment still exists in the Criminal Code. It is provided for especially grave crimes against life, for example murder with aggravating circumstances (Part 2 of Article 105 of the Russian Criminal Code) or genocide (Article 357 of the Russian Criminal Code).

Part 2 of Article 20 of the Russian Constitution states that ‘the death penalty until its abolition may be established by federal law as an exceptional form of punishment for especially grave crimes against life, provided the accused is granted the right to have their case examined by a court with the participation of a jury.’

That is, already when the Constitution was adopted in 1993, lawmakers proceeded from the understanding that a process of abandoning the death penalty had begun in Russia. It предполагает that at some point such a punishment will no longer be imposed or applied.

And in practice, death sentences really have not been handed down in Russia for almost 30 years.

In 2009, the Constitutional Court emphasized that even the introduction of jury trials in Chechnya, the last region of the country where they had been absent, did not open the way to applying the death penalty: ‘taking into account the trend in international law and the obligations assumed by the Russian Federation, an irreversible process is underway, aimed at abolishing the death penalty as an exceptional form of punishment.’

There is an opinion that the irreversibility of this process was connected exclusively with membership in the Council of Europe. But after 2022, Constitutional Court head Valery Zorkin repeatedly stated that the current moratorium complies with UN documents that Russia voted for, and that the only way to bring back the death penalty is to draft and adopt a new Constitution.”

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