Russian President Dmitry Medvedev believes...

to carry out terrorism.

The chairman of the Federation Council"s Committee on Legal and Juridical Issues, Anatoly Lyskov, said on Tuesday his committee was working on a draft law which would introduce the death penalty for terrorists.

It is unclear how an amendment stipulating the death penalty for such crimes would correlate with a moratorium on the death penalty prolonged in November 2009 by the Russian Constitutional Court.

However, the speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament, Sergei Mironov, slammed on Wednesday proposals to reinstate the death penalty for terrorists. He said that terrorists should receive life behind bars and "rot in prison and die bad deaths."

GORKI, March 31 (RIA Novosti)

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MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - A top Russian...

MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - A top Russian military medical official said Thursday that some 25-30% of conscripts were unfit for military service for health reasons. Despite a gradual shift to contract enlistment a large part of the Russian Armed Forces will still be manned by conscripts in the future, and only units on constant combat readiness will be fully manned by contract servicemen. "Although a certain positive trend in conscripts" health conditions has been registered in recent years, the improvement process is rather slow," said Igor Bykov, the defense ministry medical department head. He said mental, musculoskeletal and drug-related illnesses, as well as TB and AIDS, topped the list of diseases that make young men unfit for military service. Bykov called for the adoption of a federal law to ensure a thorough and mandatory examination of all conscripts for HIV, a procedure only applied to contract servicemen. The official also urged that health requirements be toughened in some branches of the military. "We need stricter requirements in the nuclear weapons sector, the Navy and the Strategic Missile Forces," he said.

KIEV, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - The leader...

KIEV, July 27 (RIA Novosti) - The leader of the schismatic Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchate has accused the Russian patriarch of pursuing a "political project" to deprive Ukraine of its sovereignty, the UNIAN news agency reported.

MOSCOW, June 7 (RIA Novosti) - The European...

MOSCOW, June 7 (RIA Novosti) - The European Constitution does not take into account moral traditions which causes protests against this document, Patriarch Alexis II of Moscow and All Russia said. "In my opinion, protests against the European Constitution are caused by its failure to meet the interests, moral traditions and history of France and Holland," Alexis II said after the meeting with Speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Pier Ferdinando Casini on Tuesday. "In this case, the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church have a common position. We believe that the European Constitution should mention common Christian roots as the basis of European culture," Alexis II said. "Ignoring this means countering the real truth," he added. Casini agreed with the churches" position on this issue. According to the patriarch, striving for bringing Europe back to common Christian roots will promote rapprochement of the Orthodox and Catholic Churches. "The return to common Christian roots, the basis of European culture, may promote rapprochement and ecumenical development between European churches," Alexis II said. The Moscow patriarchate said that "ecumenical development" meant "common interests of Christian churches against de-Christianization of Europe and solution of other problems." Alexis II and Casini agreed that the draft constitution "had no soul." The sides also discussed the problems of proselytism and sects, which destroy the Christian culture.

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