President Putin hails election in Chechnya as victory for stability

[Selatius]

President Vladimir Putin has hailed the vote as a major step in restoring normalcy.

But no respected international election observers monitored the election and a fact-finding mission from the Council of Europe said the region was permeated by a "climate of fear," which made it impossible to conduct a democratic vote.

Many observers say the parliament will be nothing more than a rubber-stamp body for the man likely to be Chechnya's next president — 29-year-old Ramzan Kadyrov, son of former President Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in a bomb attack in 2004.

Many blame a security force controlled by Ramzan Kadyrov for the increase in civilian abductions in the region. Nearly 1,700 people have also been kidnapped in recent years and are still missing, government officials say.

An estimated 100,000 civilians, soldiers and rebels have died in Chechnya since federal troops first swept into the region in 1994 to crush its bid for independence.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051203/ap_on_re_eu/russia_chechen_election

Kind of eerie, isn't it? 100,000 dead civilians. Like looking at yourself in the mirror. Isn't that right, Fuehrer?

[acmavm]

1. Hope for better results than we got in Iraq.

.

[PatrioticLeftie]

2. Hmm, where have I heard that before?

[bemildred]

3. Didn't work last time, won't work this time.

Bush and Pooty-Poot went to the same propaganda school.