Several top officials in Parliament and Kremlin have rejected the possibility of a return of the death penalty in Russia after Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said in an interview that he saw nothing wrong in it.

      Kolokoltsev expressed his personal opinion on two recent murders of small girls and said that in such cases the death penalty would be society’s normal reaction.

      His words, nevertheless, were taken seriously by Russian press and news about possible return of the death penalty to Russia appeared in several papers and news portals. Such events prompted officials from the top levels of the legislature and executive to assure the public there were no plans to re-introduce the death penalty in Russia.

      Kremlin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said on Monday that the president’s position on the issue is more to a total abolition of the death penalty than to its return. He also stressed that Interior Minister Kolokoltsev was simply sharing his personal opinion, which shouldn't be presented as an official position.

      Russia introduced an indefinite moratorium on the death penalty over 15 years ago as part of its obligations to the Council of Europe, but Russian politicians still regularly use the subject in their debates, and there are also many supporters of the extreme penalty's return. Parliamentarians from opposition factions KPRF and LDPR support re-introducing the death penalty for such crimes as underage rape.