Russia imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 1996, but is yet to abolish it constitutionally, which is an obligation under its membership of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Sergei Mironov, the speaker of the upper chamber of parliament, told delegates to another European body in France, "I am a convinced opponent of the death penalty, but objectively there are few people in Russia who support it."
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will hear a report Wednesday evening on Council of Europe member countries that have not yet abolished the death penalty.
Mironov said there were some people who thought justice should be applied on the principle of "an eye for an eye", but added he hoped that idea was becoming a thing of the past.
Prosecutors in southern Russia were seeking the death sentence in May for the last known survivor of a gang that staged the Beslan school siege in September 2004, which led to the deaths of 331 people, including 186 children. The judge sentenced 26-year-old Nurpashi Kulayev to life imprisonment in May after he was found guilty on all counts.
