MOSCOW, February 11 - RAPSI. Talks of imposing an all-out ban on the death penalty in Russia are not on the agenda, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a statement to Dozhd TV Monday.

When asked if the president was opposed to the death penalty, Peskov said: "Yes, more likely than not."

According to Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, calls to reinstate the death penalty have recently surged as the public has reacted to a series of brutal murders committed against children.

Moreover, Kolokoltsev said he would not object to lifting the moratorium on the death penalty - as a citizen and not as a government official.

Peskov, in turn, stressed that Kolokoltsev was expressing his private opinion – and not the government's official position on the issue.

Vladimir Pligin, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Constitutional Law and State Development, recently urged that it would not be wise to lift the moratorium, as judicial errors are possible. However, Kolokoltsev’s emotional statements and public calls deserve consideration, he told journalists.

Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin told reporters on Monday that he was opposed to the death penalty.

On April 16, 1997, Russia signed Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention of Human Rights concerning the abolition of the death penalty during peacetime. The document has not yet been ratified. At this stage, Russia has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty.