The human rights organisation, Amnesty International, says there are still serious human rights violations in Russia, despite President Yeltsin's promise to make the issue a top priority.

The deputy secretary-general of Amnesty, Derek Evans -- speaking in Moscow at the end of a fact-finding mission -- said torture and inhumane conditions continued in the prisons, bullying of military conscripts remained widespread, and there was still no alternative to military service for conscientious objectors.

Mr Evans also criticised the failure to abolish the death penalty, although Russia committed itself to do this when it joined the Council of Europe in 1996.