23/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 19 November, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland welcomed the decision announced that day by Russia' constitutional court to extend the moratorium on the death penalty as an important further step towards abolishing the death penalty in Russia. The moratorium has put the death penalty on hold in Russia since 1996 but it has not yet been abolished (Russia promised to do so when it joined the Council of Europe in 1996)....