The country's parliament voted to back a bill backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's dominant United Russia party giving three judges the right to rule on cases involving terrorism, hostage-taking, armed insurrection, sabotage and civil disturbances.
The bill will go before Russia's upper house, the Federation Council where approval is expected to be a formality, before it becomes law.
The move came 15 years to the day since the adoption of Russia's first post-Soviet Constitution which reintroduced jury trials abolished by the Bolsheviks in 1917.
Critics said the move raised the spectre of a return to Soviet-style trials controlled solely by judges.
Russia scraps right to jury trial
Since October, former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale has been quietly overseeing an operation posting hundreds...
Zelensky met Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Lublin on Wednesday, following weeks of heightened friction...
The fallout from the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel's military campaigns across the Middle...
Just one day before his funeral is set to take place in Washington, DC, video footage...
