Russian Orthodox Church against lifting moratorium on death penalty
January 18, 2022
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CWN Editor's Note: Since 1996, there has been a moratorium on capital punishment in Russia. Valery Zorkin, chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, said recently that Russia could lift the moratorium, though he opposed doing so.
“I don’t think we should return to what was in the past and resume the death penalty, because this institution will lead neither to fewer crimes, nor any positive shift in public consciousness whatsoever,” said Metropolitan Hilarion, the chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations.
“I don’t think this is something we should return to, at least for the sake of memory for those who fell innocent victim to the flywheel of Stalinist repressions,” he added. “It seems to me that our own sad history, with mass executions and later rehabilitations, should teach us that we must not repeat these mistakes.”
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