41% of Russians believe that the death penalty should be restored “as it was in the early 1990s.” This indicator, having reached a minimum of 31% in 2015, has grown by 10 percentage points over 6 years. At the same time, the share of those who believe that it is necessary to maintain the current situation has decreased from 27% in the summer of 2015 to 20% in 2021. 17% believe that the death penalty should be completely abolished, 16% are sure that it is necessary to expand the use of the death penalty.

Representatives of the older groups of respondents are mainly in favor of restoring the death penalty: 48% in the group of 55 years and older, 45% in the group of 40-54 years. Supporters of the complete abolition of the death penalty are mostly the youngest respondents: a third (32%) of respondents are 18-24 years old.

Most often, according to Russians, the death penalty should be sentenced for: rape of underage children (73%), serial murders (67%), terrorism and preparation of a coup d’etat (49%), premeditated murder (43%), drug trafficking (31%). This list has not changed over the past decade.

Half of Russians (48%) believe that it is possible to achieve a reduction in crime by tightening penalties (+3 percentage points from 2019). Another 38% are convinced that better work of law enforcement agencies should help (-6 percentage points from 2019). 40% believe that it is necessary to improve the overall well-being of people (+2 percentage points from 2019-within the statistical error).

This survey was conducted May 20 – 26 2021, among a representative sample of all Russian urban and rural residents. The sample was comprised of 1620 people aged 18 or older in 137 municipalities of 50 regions of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The answer distribution is presented as percentages of the total number of participants along with data from previous surveys.

The statistical error of these studies for a sample of 1600 people (with a probability of 0.95) does not exceed:

3.4% for indicators around 50%

2.9% for indicators around 25%/75%

2.0% for indicators around 10%/90%

1.5% for indicators around 5%/95%

The ANO Levada Center has been included in the registry of non-commercial organizations acting as foreign agents.