Pro-Putin Party Sweeps to Easy Win in Chechnya
The pro-Kremlin United Russia party swept to an easy victory in elections Sunday for a local parliament in Chechnya, according to preliminary returns Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed the vote as a key step in restoring order in the republic, the scene of years of separatist war, but critics of the election, including some Western European observers, said it would do little to foster real democratic decision-making. Full Story