Terrorism and the death penalty

One perspective on yesterday's metro bombings you're unlikely to hear outside of Russia concerns the death penalty. Back in 1996 Russia joined the Council of Europe which required, among other things, that they put a moratorium on capital punishment. The Russian constitutional court backed the ban in 2009.

But at the time of last year's Nevsky Express bombing you started to hear commentators calling for a repeal of the moratorium as a deterrent to terrorism. I'm skeptical of that argument, but it's now gaining attention in the upper house of parliament again.

One member: "if such terrible crimes take place, we should propose the society a new variant of criminal punishment, so that people involved in a terrorist attack know what to expect." Article here.