Grozny, Russia
Russia’s war-ravaged province of Chechnya had a good turnout—more than 50 percent—in its parliamentary election this week, an exercise that Moscow said proves normalcy is returning. A pro-Kremlin party won most of the seats. But human-rights activists said the vote was a sham intended to legitimize the rule of Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, a widely feared warlord whose armed thugs control the capital. Chechen rebels, still fighting for independence, said the vote was a poor substitute for a real political process, which they say should include them.
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