(Adds ministry quotes, former Iraqi ambassador, background) MOSCOW, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Russia said it regretted former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's execution on Saturday for crimes against humanity and was worried his death could trigger a new spiral of violence in Iraq. "Regrettably, repeated calls by representatives of various nations and international organisations to the Iraqi authorities to refrain from capital punishment were not heard," a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said. "Saddam Hussein's execution can lead to further aggravation of the military and political situation and the growth of ethnic and sectarian tensions." Russian ultra-nationalists from the Liberal Democratic Party, led by firebrand deputy parliamentary speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky, were planning a protest rally in front of the Iraqi embassy in Moscow later on Saturday. In harsh remarks broadcast at length by Russian radio and television stations, former Iraqi ambassador to Russia Abbas Halaf decried Saddam's death as "the murder of a real son of his nation". "When we now witness all those bloody events happening under the occupation of U.S. troops and their marionettes, when Baghdad streets are strewn with corpses of more than 100 people killed daily, then compared to all that Saddam Hussein is an angel," he said. Russia imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 1996.
