MOSCOW AP The Russian government may rescind its pledge to ban capital punishment because of the country's soaring lawlessness and crime officials said Tuesday. ``The moratorium on death penalty is likely to be canceled and punishment will be made more severe'' said Vladimir Kartashkin head of the Commission for Human Rights under President Boris Yeltsin according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Russia promised to scrap the death penalty in January 1996 when it joined the Council of Europe a human rights organization. Nonetheless 92 people were executed before Yeltsin imposed a moratorium on executions later that year. The government says there have been no executions since August 1996 but Yeltsin's previous efforts to outlaw capital punishment have been blocked by hard-liners in the Russian parliament who argue that the death penalty is needed to control crime. With only a moratorium on executions Russian courts have continued handing down death sentences and about 1000 people are now on death row according to the Amnesty International human rights group. Polls show a majority of Russians support capital punishment. The unsolved slaying last month of liberal lawmaker Galina Starovoitova perhaps the most prominent woman politician in Russia caused a public uproar and renewed calls for tougher government action against crime. Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov responded last week by promising to ``physically eliminate'' organized crime. He didn't elaborate but other officials said that would probably mean a revival of the death penalty. Council of Europe officials said they were bewildered by Primakov's statement and expressed hope that Russia would honor its commitments ITAR-Tass said. Kartashkin said that senior prosecutors judges and police officials are strongly pushing for resuming executions. He spoke against that saying that such an action would undermine Russia's prestige abroad. ``We joined the Council of Europe signed corresponding legal acts and can't violate the constitution and our international obligations even in the current difficult situation'' he said. Yeltsin's first deputy chief of staff Oleg Sysuyev also strongly opposed resuming executions saying it was unlikely to help combat crime. ``The death penalty ban remains on today's agenda'' he said. ``Its suspension will only deceive the society without bringing the desired results.'' Earlier this year parliament's lower house the State Duma ratified the European human rights convention with the exception of a death penalty ban. vi/ren APW19981201.0667.txt.body.html APW19981201.1447.txt.body.html