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 In a rare meeting of both chambers of parliament on Friday,
deputies, senators adopted a resolution calling for tougher
penalties for terrorists, stricter public security measures and new
action to combat extremism.
"You can't have too much security and any system needs perfecting,"
said Valentina Matviyenko, a close ally of President Vladimir Putin
and the head of the Federation Council, the upper house of
parliament. "Such work is going on at full pace."
Putin on Tuesday vowed to hunt down those responsible for blowing up
an Airbus A321 packed with Russian tourists over Egypt on Oct. 31.
All 224 people on board were killed.
The Kremlin has also cited the Paris attacks, in which at least 129
people were killed, as another reason why Russia and the world need
to get tougher on Islamic State.
Matviyenko said security measures at airports, on public transport
and in places where large events are held, had already been beefed
up, on Putin's orders, in the past week.
 But she and others said more needed to be done. Among the
suggestions: Reinstating the death penalty for terrorists and
setting up an international Nuremberg-style tribunal to try Islamic
militants.
"There are proposals to widen the powers of the intelligence
services and law enforcement agencies and to toughen criminal
responsibility not only for terrorist activity but for anyone who
supports it morally, financially or with information," said
Matviyenko.
Sergei Naryshkin, the head of the lower house of parliament, said
lawmakers now needed to analyze the legal base underpinning national
security to better protect people and strategic sites.
Russia has intensified its air strikes against Islamist militants in
Syria in response to the Egypt plane bombing, but lawmakers say they
want to ensure Putin knows he has their full support if he decides
to go further.
Most Russians approve of Putin's actions in Syria and his personal
popularity is at a record high of almost 90 percent, opinion polls
show.
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But his handling of the Egypt plane crash appears to have drawn a
more mixed reaction with one survey, conducted by the independent
Levada pollster, showing that 73 percent of Russians thought he
should have addressed the nation personally afterwards to offer his
condolences.
Sergei Mironov, the leader of the Just Russia party, said on Friday
it was "essential" in the wake of the plane bombing for Russia to
bring back the death penalty, currently subject to a moratorium, for
terrorists and their accomplices.
Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said Mironov's idea was a new one
but that the issue was complex, while Sergei Ivanov, Putin's
chief-of-staff, said Russians would back such a proposal but that it
was "premature" to reinstate capital punishment.
Many of the speakers blamed the West for the rise of Islamic State
and for hindering the fight against it by refusing to team up with
Russia.
"The West blew up the situation in the Middle East and North Africa,
and sowed chaos, bloodshed and a humanitarian catastrophe," said
Matviyenko.
"Measures must be taken to ensure nobody has the right to act like
that in the world using such methods."
(Additional reporting by Polina Devitt, Jack Stubbs and Elena
Fabrichnaya; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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