Top > World > 2005 > November > 2005-11-27

Moscow hopes for Chechnya stability

A last element in a three-step Kremlin plan to "normalize" breakaway Chechnya falls into place Sunday as the tiny breakaway Russian republic`s voters elect their first internal parliament since the current war began in 1999. Authorities in the Russian capital of Moscow hope the campaigning, which has seen 353 candidates from eight political parties competing in a relatively free atmosphere, will convince a skeptical world that Chechnya has returned to Russia`s constitutional fold after two bitter wars of attempted secession in 11 years.

In a grim reminder that all is not quite normal in Chechnya, several dozen human rights activists demonstrated in Grozny last week to demand that Russian forces limit their use of armored vehicles and dismantle hundreds of checkpoints that still impede daily life.

"Official Moscow needs these elections to strip separatists of their last shreds of legitimacy in the eyes of the West," says Timur Aliyev, editor of Chechen Society, an independent newspaper in the Chechen capital of Grozny. "This parliament will fill the missing link in our authorities` system."