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Amendments on death penalty to lead to new Constitution — official

Russia currently has a moratorium on the death penalty as a form of punishment

MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. Reintroducing the death penalty in Russia is only possible through changing the existent Constitution, Chairman of the Russian Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin said on Tuesday at the 10th All-Russian Congress of Judges.

"Only amendments to the Constitution may serve as a basis for reintroducing the death penalty," he said, noting that the text of the Constitution was constructed in such a way that introducing changes on the topic of the death penalty would lead to the adoption of a new Constitution.

"I want to stress that one should read the rulings of the Constitutional Court more carefully. In Russia we have a constitutional and legal regime, in the framework of which Russian citizens have been given the right not to be sentenced to the death penalty," Zorkin pointed out.

Russia currently has a moratorium on the death penalty as a form of punishment.