“The Supreme Court believes that the Constitutional Court’s ruling may result in conflicting law enforcement practices in courts,” the petition reads, according to RIA Novosti agency.

It’s not clear whether courts will be able to impose capital punishment or not. Further complicating matters is the question of whether the death penalty contradicts international law.

According to a statement issued by the Russian Constitutional Court press service, due to the extreme importance and urgency of the issue, the court may examine the Supreme Court’s petition as soon as a November 9 plenary meeting.

An unidentified source in the Presidential Administration told Gazeta.ru that the Kremlin will find a way to avoid lifting the ban on capital punishment. Another similar source had earlier claimed that the announcement will be made in Medvedev’s address to Parliament on November 12.

Background

In 1994, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe called on member countries to abolish capital punishment or exclude capital punishment from their legislation.

Russia joined the Council of Europe on February 28, 1996 and made a commitment to establish a moratorium on capital punishment and to abolish the death penalty. The state also agreed to ratify within three years after joining the council the 6th protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, which was signed in Strasbourg in 1983.

Article 1 of the latter reads: “The death penalty shall be abolished. No one shall be condemned to such penalty or executed.”

Russia did sign the document, but hasn’t ratified it so far. It’s become the only of 47 member states of the Council of Europe that hasn’t ratified the document.

According to the Vienna Convention of 1969 on the Law of Treaties, to which Russia is a signatory, a state is obliged not to do anything that contradicts a treaty even prior to its entry into force.

The Supreme Court said that taking into consideration that Russia signed Protocol 6 but hasn’t ratified and, at the same time, hasn’t refused from joining it, it’s not clear whether judges can impose capital punishment or not.

Public opinion is divided

The Russian public, meanwhile, is split on the issue. According to a survey carried out by “Levada Center,” only 14 percent of Russians are against the death penalty while 37 percent believe it should exist. Sixteen percent of respondents believe the list of capital crimes should be longer, and would like to see pedophilia included on the list.

Twenty percent of Russians are happy with how things are and don’t want any changes.

Meanwhile, there’s also a political side to it, Konstantin Kosachev, head of the Russia’s State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, told Interfax agency.

The question is, “considering ourselves a democratic state, are we eligible to use the death penalty?” he said. The official said that he, personally, believes that capital punishment should be abolished.

The Interfax agency writes that senior Russian human rights activists are also against capital punishment.

"I have always been against the death penalty. Undoubtedly, it must be abolished definitively," said Lyudmila Alekseeva, head of the Moscow Helsinki Group.

The risk of mistaken death sentences is a good enough reason to abolish the punishment, said Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the For Human Rights organization.