Chechens vote

last updated 8 January 2015

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.