After Friday night’s terrorist attack in Moscow, several high-ranking members of Vladimir Putin’s regime called for the moratorium on the death penalty for “terrorists” to be lifted, France Presse reports.

“Today, many people ask about the death penalty (…) a decision will be made that will meet the expectations of our society,” commented Volodymyr Vasiliev, head of the deputy group of the ruling United Russia party. The topic of canceling the moratorium, which has been in effect since 1996.

Another speaker of the parliament, Yuriy Afonin, responsible for security issues, went even further: “When we talk about terrorism and killing people, we must restore the death penalty in the criminal law.”

Serhii Mironov, a member of the pro-Kremlin party “Just Russia”, also called “to introduce the death penalty for those who commit terrorist acts.”

The category of “terrorists” also includes Russian opponents, Ukrainian leaders, or the LGBT movement

In addition to jihadist groups such as Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for the Crocus concert hall attack that killed at least 133 people, Russia considers a number of Ukrainian opponents and leaders to be “extremists” and “terrorists.”

This month, it also added the “international LGBT movement” to a list of terrorist organizations compiled by the Russian financial services.

Russia has so far made no mention of jihadist involvement in Friday’s massacre, despite the Islamic State group claiming responsibility for the attack.

Russian intelligence services and Vladimir Putin, however, said the attackers had ties to Ukraine, without giving further details.

Moscow has also organized a total suppression of the Russian opposition, in particular through accusations of extremism, terrorism, discrediting the armed forces and treason.

Dmytro Medvedev, the former president and now number two in Russia’s Security Council, vowed on Friday that Russia would “destroy” Ukrainian leaders if they were responsible for the attack on the concert hall.

“If it is established that they are terrorists of the Kyiv regime (…), then all of them must be found and mercilessly destroyed as terrorists. Including the leaders of the state who committed such an atrocity,” he said in Telegram.

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