Chechens voted on Sunday for a new regional assembly in an election expected to cement the power of a pro-Russian strongman but dismissed by pro-independence rebels as a political sham, Reuters reported. Pro-Moscow officials say the polls will give Chechnya a full set of the government functions needed to make it a normal part of the Russian state after years of conflict. "Parliamentary polls will kick-start the democratic process in Chechnya," Interfax news agency quoted pro-Moscow President Alu Alkhanov as saying. "Now we face municipal polls, mayoral elections, the process of creating civil society." Most voters focused more on what parliament could do to end violence and improve the economic situation in the region devastated by a decade of war and haunted by lawlessness and kidnappings blamed by many residents on Russian troops and pro-Moscow security forces. "The most important issue is peace, nothing else matters," Grozny voter Said, 33, said.
