Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Russia, but is not used due to a moratorium and no death sentences or executions have been carried out since 2 August 1996. Russia has had an implicit moratorium in place since one was established by President Boris Yeltsin in 1996, and explicitly established by the Constitutional Court of Russia in 1999 and reaffirmed in 2009.

Fanny Efimovna Kaplan was a Russian Socialist-Revolutionary who attempted to assassinate Vladimir Lenin. She was arrested and executed by the Cheka in 1918.