The Death Penalty in the OSCE Area Council of Europe.42 In 1997, Russia signed Protocol No. 6 to the ECHR, though it has not yet ratified it.43 In February 1999, the Constitutional Court of Russia issued a decision, according to which the death penalty could not be applied until jury trials were established throughout the territory of Russia.44 As the moratorium on the application of the death penalty was about to expire, in November 2009, a ruling of the Constitutional Court extended it for an indefinite period of time, until Russia’s ratification of Protocol 6 to the ECHR.45 Capital punishment remains part of Russian criminal law. The Constitution retains it as an exclusive form of punishment for especially grave crimes against life.46 Under the Criminal Code, the death penalty can be applied for five types of offences: aggravated murder; assassination attempts against a state or public figure; attempts on the life of a person administering justice or preliminary investigations; attempts on the life of a law-enforcement official; and genocide.47 The death penalty is not imposed against women or offenders under the age of 18 or over 65. Capital punishment is not imposed on extradited offenders when the crimes committed are not punishable by the death penalty under the legislation of the extraditing state, or when the offender is extradited on the condition of the non-application of capital punishment. A death sentence can be commuted, by way of pardon, to life imprisonment or imprisonment for a term of 25 years.48 Debate on the issue of capital punishment in Russia continued during the reporting period. A resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to suspend the voting rights of the Russian delegation, followed by the Russian 42  Presidential Decree No. 724 of May 16, 1996 “On the gradual reduction of the application of the death penalty in connection with Russia’s accession to the Council of Europe”;.however, according to Amnesty International, executions continued to be carried out in the Chechen Republic between 1996 and 1999. “Death penalty: Countries abolitionist in practice”, Amnesty International, <https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/death-penalty/> 43  Protocol No. 6 status, Council of Europe Treaty Office, <http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/ChercheSig. asp?NT=114&CM=7&DF=17/08/2015&CL=ENG>. 44  Decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, 2 February 1999, <http://pravo.gov.ru/proxy/ ips/?docbody=&nd=102057956&intelsearch=%CF%EE%F1%F2%E0%ED%EE%E2%EB%E5%ED%E8%E5+%E E%F2+02.02.1999+N+3-%CF>. 45  Сообщение для СМИ о решении Конституционного Суда Российской Федерации о продлении моратория на высшую меру наказания, [Announcement of MFA on decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation about the extension of the moratorium on the death penalty] , Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, <http://archive.mid.ru//bdomp/ns-dgpch.nsf/4681a749b12257b3432569ea003614e4%20%C2%B7%20 /432569ee00522d3cc32576730058cdb9!OpenDocument>. 46  Article 20 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, adopted on 12 December 1993. 47  Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, adopted on13 June 1996, amended on 29 June 2009, Article 105 (2), Article 277, Article 295, Article 317 and Article 357 48  Ibid., Article 59 16