The Russian government may not have a stellar judicial record, as Khodorkovsky can confirm. Yet the fact that he is alive at all he owes to his country’s even worse democratic record.
You see, whereas “a recent survey shows around two thirds of Russians support the death penalty”, Medvedev and the Kremlin apparat are committed to extending Russia’s longstanding moratorium on executions in line with Protocol Six of the European Convention on Human Rights,” which prohibits the use of the death penalty in peaceful times”.
Mikhail Margelov, head of the foreign affairs committee of the Federation Council, was quoted by the BBC as saying:
In other countries, the death penalty has always been removed because of the will of the majority. [In Russia, ] the political elite are pitting their inclination for rational modernisation against the will of the people.
But over in America, democracy continues to claim lives.
Yesterday, Virginia executed the DC sniper.
Meanwhile in Texas, where 3/4th of its residents back the death penalty, the state has been representing popular will with such zeal that it has executed more people than any US state.
There, 444 convicts were killed in the last 3 decades, more than half as many since 1976 as in over 300 preceding years!
Thank god Russia’s political elites don’t care what its people want!
