MOSCOW. Feb 11 (Interfax) - First Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Buksman said Russia cannot re-introduce the death penalty because it has assumed appropriate international obligations.
"My position is very simple: Russia has assumed international obligations and we have a duty to fulfill them," Buksman told Interfax, commenting on the appropriate statements made by Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev.
Kolokoltsev earlier said in an interview with NTV that he as a citizen does not see anything wrong in the death penalty for cruel crimes.
"I may incur anger from opponents of the death penalty. But as a citizen, not as a minister, I don't think it would be wrong to exercise this punishment for such criminals," Kolokoltsev said, commenting on the reports about the murder of girls in Tatarstan and the Irkutsk region and the statement made by NTV journalist Pozdnyakov, who said the public has been increasingly in favor of restoring the death penalty.