DUMA DEPUTIES CALL FOR MORATORIUM ON DEATH PENALTY.

Russian Duma speaker Gennady Seleznev and International Affairs Committee chairman Vladimir Lukin have appealed to President Boris Yeltsin to declare a moratorium on the death penalty in Russia. (NTV, October 29) When Russia joined the Council of Europe in February, it undertook to abolish the death penalty within three years, and the Council called for a moratorium on executions until abolition became law. About 200 people are believed to have been executed in Russia annually in the last five years. (Komsomolskaya pravda, July 30)

Criminal Charges Against Chechen Separatists May Soon be Canceled.