InfoAnda - Analysis: Chechnya: How did Putin's party win 99 percent? |

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

New Japan PM Noda faces party feud, split parliament | | 30 August 2011
China's trade surplus balloons | 10 August 2010
Dell results latest warning for Intel: report | 23 November 2010

And the ballots go to ... 5,810 Oscar voters | 29 January 2009

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Analysis: Chechnya: How did Putin's party win 99 percent? |

Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Home Business Business Home Economy Davos 2012 Technology Media Small Business Legal Deals Earnings Summits Business Video Markets Markets Home U.S. Markets European Markets Asian Markets Global Market Data Indices M&A Stocks Bonds Currencies Commodities Futures Funds peHUB World World Home U.S. Brazil China Euro Zone Japan Mexico Russia India Insight World Video Politics Politics Home Election 2012 Issues 2012 Candidates 2012 Tales from the Trail Political Punchlines Supreme Court Politics Video Tech Technology Home MediaFile Science Tech Video Opinion Opinion Home Chrystia Freeland John Lloyd Felix Salmon Jack Shafer David Rohde Bernd Debusmann Gregg Easterbrook Nader Mousavizadeh James Saft Lucy P. Marcus David Cay Johnston Bethany McLean Edward Hadas Hugo Dixon Ian Bremmer Mohamed El-Erian Lawrence Summers Susan Glasser The Great Debate Steven Brill Breakingviews Equities Credit Private Equity M&A Macro & Markets Politics Money Money Home Global Investing MuniLand Unstructured Finance Linda Stern Mark Miller John Wasik Analyst Research Alerts Watchlist Portfolio Stock Screener Fund Screener Personal Finance Video Life & Culture Health Sports Arts Faithworld Business Traveler Entertainment Oddly Enough Lifestyle Video Pictures Pictures Home Reuters Photographers Full Focus Video Article Comments (0) Slideshow Full Focus Editor's choice Our top photos from the last 24 hours. Full Article Best photos of the year Follow Reuters Facebook Twitter RSS YouTube Read Exclusive: North Korea's military to share power with Kim's heir | 8:58am EST Banks gorge on ECB loans, market cheer short-lived | 1:35pm EST Slumping Gingrich promises sharper counter-punch 20 Dec 2011 Britain "concerned" about Falklands ship ban 11:03am EST Special Report: Phantom firms bleed millions from Medicare | 2:26pm EST Discussed 155 Ron Paul strongly defends anti-war policies 118 Slumping Gingrich promises sharper counter-punch 114 North Korea state TV says Kim Jong il has died Watched Tears flow for Dear Leader Tue, Dec 20 2011 Japan picks the F35 as regional uncertainty rises Mon, Dec 19 2011 Kim Jong-un to share power 3:35am EST Analysis: Chechnya: How did Putin's party win 99 percent? Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Russia's Putin offers protesters small change Thu, Dec 15 2011 Analysis: Putin critics hit back over charge of Western funding Tue, Dec 13 2011 Putin ally wants new liberal party after Russia protests Mon, Dec 12 2011 Two Putin-era Russians seek liberal mantle Mon, Dec 12 2011 Thousands of Russians protest against Putin Sat, Dec 10 2011 Analysis & Opinion UN condemns religious intolerance, drops ‘defamation’ line for first time in years Indian uproar at call in Russia to ban Hindu holy book Bhagavad Gita Related Topics World » Russia » 1 of 4. Idris Abadiev, a former deputy in the parliament in Ingushetia, speaks during an interview in his house outside of the city of Nazran, December 16, 2011. Credit: Reuters/Yelena Fitkulina By Thomas Grove GROZNY, Russia | Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:47pm EST GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - Dagmein Khaseinova beams with pride recalling the day her Chechen village, devastated a decade ago in a war launched by Vladimir Putin, gave the Russian ruler's party nearly 100 percent support in a parliamentary vote this month. Her little village of Mekhketi, she said, is even on the way to winning the cash prize she says authorities have promised for the polling station registering the biggest turnout. "(We've) already won the regional competition. In a few days we'll hear whether we won throughout all of Chechnya," Khaseinova, 53, said, wearing a traditional Chechen scarf over her head and squinting in the cold mountain air. "The organizers of the polling station have been promised some kind of prize money if they win," she adds, hiding a smile. Putin's United Russia recorded a higher percentage of votes in predominantly Muslim Chechnya, where federal troops fought two wars since the fall of the Soviet Union, than anywhere else in the country. Official results show support at 99.5 percent and voter turnout of 99.4 percent. Nationwide, the party won just under half the votes, securing a slim majority in the State Duma. Even that outcome, critics said, was the result of ballot stuffing and fraud. Countless complaints have been filed; but not in Chechnya Official monitors here have not lodged a single complaint of voting violations, but among many local residents, the outcome has stirred some incredulity, albeit cautiously expressed. "United Russia is the party of Putin, and Chechnya would never vote for Putin," said one middle-aged resident of the regional capital of Grozny, who declined to give his name for fear of retribution. "In the mind of every Chechen he is associated with the bombing that destroyed Grozny and other cities all over the region," "Voting for Putin is about as absurd as any vote with a 99 percent outcome," he said. Regarding the competition between polling stations, the head of Chechnya's Central Election Committee Ismail Baikhanov said that a competition had been organized, but only with the aim of "informing local populations, the technical equipping of polling stations and visual campaigning." International monitors were out in force on election day in much of Russia, and say the vote was slanted in favour of United Russia and marred by numerous instances of ballot stuffing. But they did not observe the poll in Chechnya or the rest of the North Caucasus because of security concerns over an insurgency, rooted in past wars, being waged in the region. Militants want to throw off Russian rule and create an Islamist state. Russia sent troops into Chechnya in late 1994 to try to crush a drive for independence. Much of Grozny was flattened in heavy fighting but the army struggled to quell separatist rebels fighting a guerrilla war in the mountains. Thousands of troops and fighters were killed, and various estimates put the civilian death toll in the tens of thousands, before the demoralized Russian army withdrew. Many more people who had their homes destroyed were displaced. "DON'T WAG YOUR TONGUE!" When Putin launched a second war in 1999 that established federal control over Chechnya after a period of de facto independence, Makhketi in Chechnya's Vedeno region saw some of the fiercest fighting. A little over a decade later, a left-over United Russia election poster flaps in the wind over the quiet village square with a huge picture of Chechnya's smiling leader Ramzan Kadyrov donning a construction worker's hat. Locals say Kadyrov's second wife hails from a family in the village. Kadyrov says that although he accepts polygamy as a Muslim practice, he has only one wife. His strict rule has sparked accusations of human rights violations, say rights groups, including extra-judicial detention and torture. Few people, though, dare to talk about their experiences for fear of retribution. Villager Daudov Vasady, 79, said he had no choice but to vote for United Russia. "My wife and I, we voted for United Russia. If our (leader Kadyrov) votes for United Russia then we have to as well," he said. "If I hadn't voted, if others wouldn't have voted, then people would have noticed and it would have created problems," he said, refusing to explain further. As another villager speaks, a blue car carrying three men drives past. One shouts from the car: "Don't wag your tongue about anything personal!" GIVEN UP MONITORING On the popular Caucasian Knot internet site, a blogger who was identified as lamro95 says all the teachers in the city were called into work on the day of the elections to make sure they voted. "An acquaintance of mine voted three times in the same polling station. Since the stations were in Chechen schools, teachers voted several times." Others say the key to the results was not in the force used to make people vote, but in ballot stuffing. Human rights workers say they have given up monitoring elections. They say polling station workers told them they had stayed up late into the night to fill ballot boxes with United Russia votes long after polling stations had closed. "We didn't monitor the elections because we knew there was no point to it," said an independent rights worker who refused to allow his name or the title of his organization to be published for fear of retribution. "The turnout will always be 99 percent and the number of votes (for the ruling party) will always reach 99 percent. We should simply stop the elections and save everyone a lot of money." The day after the election, Chechnya's voting commission was forced to raise the number of eligible voters in the republic, after the number of ballots cast exceeded the registered voter number by some 2,000 votes. The head of Chechnya's voting committee Baikhanov said the original number of voters -- 608,797 -- was already six months old when it was announced as the number of voters on December 2, two days before the election. "Since that time a number of people reached voting age, and they cast their ballots. There were also those who voted with absentee ballots, and there were military who have since come to our region" he said. Many people say they are content to accept the outcome of the election and want to maintain the small gains they have seen since the second Chechen war, but anger at the perception of vote rigging is not far from the surface. POLITICS VS REAL LIFE Isa Khadjimuradov, who was until recently the leader of the left-leaning Just Russia party in Chechnya, said he had received an awkward phone call from his party's headquarters in Moscow the day after the election. Why, he was asked, did the official results show that some 90 percent of the party's 12,000 members had cast their ballots for another party? "You can't look at the situation in Chechnya in the same context as you look at the situation in the rest of Russia," said Khadjimuradov, who wore a traditional Chechen costume, including a hat made from baby lambskin. "Politics is not thought of here as real life. They affect the authorities to some degree, but nonetheless, politics, the political process is not really reflected in the lives of normal people," he said. Khadjimuradov carries an iPhone displaying a picture of himself with Kadyrov, although they are from different parties. Many Chechens say Kadyrov, a rebel who became a Kremlin loyalist, is the engine for United Russia's performance. He came to power three years after his father, the region's first Moscow-backed leader, was killed by separatists in 2004 and has enjoyed a steady flow of Russian funds that he has used to rebuild Grozny. Across the city, United Russia flags flutter along the side of the road, next to pennants bearing the colors of the Chechen and Russian flags. Pictures of a young, austere-looking Vladimir Putin stare down at motorists across the small region. Glitzy construction projects loom above the main thoroughfare named Putin Prospect. Above a giant New Year's tree in central Grozny, red lights spell out: "Thank You Ramzan For Grozny." Some local residents say Kadyrov uses the money to further his own personal ambitions and establish a cult of personality in the region, while channeling money and jobs to his own Benoi clan, the largest and most powerful in Chechnya. At a cafe in Grozny, Khadjimuradov's friends - other functionaries in government offices - debated whether Kadyrov is more like Peter the Great or Caliph Uthman, the Muslim leader who brought Islam to neighboring Dagestan in the 7th century. "Kadyrov is a builder. He has a vision like Peter the Great did," said Khadjimuradov. Political analysts say there is real popularity for United Russia among the people who have benefited from Moscow's funds and recognize the importance of loyalty to the Kremlin which results in heavy state funding. "The support he enjoys from Russia is one of the fundamental bases for stability in the region and the reason why he can exercise so much authority ... So he has a reason to be personally thankful to Putin," said Yevgeny Minchenko, director of the International Institute of Political Analysis in Moscow. In exchange for clamping down on Islamist insurgents, human rights groups say Moscow ignores accusations of rights abuses such as extra-judicial kidnappings and police torture. The logic follows that as long as the region remains quiet Moscow turns a blind eye to violations of Russia's secular constitution as Kadyrov boosts his own authority by imposing his own version of radical Islam. Kadyrov has denied allegations of wrong-doing as attempts to blacken his name and says he works only to rebuild the region and keep peace. SHARIA COURT The North Caucasus region as a whole saw support for United Russia much higher than in most other regions. Neighboring Dagestan and Ingushetia both showed United Russia support above 90 percent. Idris Abadiev, a former deputy in the parliament in Ingushetia, and leaders of other local clans say the vote was falsified in Ingushetia. They complained to Ingushetia's Islamic court, which locals say operates unofficially under the regional Mufti. There they decided to sue Ingushetia leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and the regional election committee head Musa Yevloyev. "To protect the interests and the rights of our own people, we have to pick our own deputies to enter parliament, not those who have been assigned to us," said Abadiev, speaking in his house outside of the city of Nazran. A combination of corruption, religious militancy and clan loyalties have inflamed the insurgency in the North Caucasus which President Dmitry Medvedev has called Russia's biggest domestic security threat. Nearly 700 people have been killed in the first 11 months of this year in violence between security officials and militants, says the Caucasian Knot, which monitors violence. "I didn't vote because it doesn't matter how you fill out your voting ballot. Putin will always be in power. Putin doesn't respect our laws, the laws of Shariah that we want here," said 26-year-old Malik Kastoyev. (Editing by Timothy Heritage) World Russia Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above. Edition: U.S. Africa Arabic Argentina Brazil Canada China France Germany India Italy Japan Latin America Mexico Russia Spain United Kingdom Back to top Reuters.com Business Markets World Politics Technology Opinion Money Pictures Videos Site Index Legal Bankruptcy Law California Legal New York Legal Securities Law Support & Contact Support Corrections Advertise With Us Connect with Reuters Twitter Facebook LinkedIn RSS Podcast Newsletters Mobile About Privacy Policy Terms of Use Our Flagship financial information platform incorporating Reuters Insider An ultra-low latency infrastructure for electronic trading and data distribution A connected approach to governance, risk and compliance Our next generation legal research platform Our global tax workstation Thomsonreuters.com About Thomson Reuters Investor Relations Careers Contact Us Thomson Reuters is the world's largest international multimedia news agency, providing investing news, world news, business news, technology news, headline news, small business news, news alerts, personal finance, stock market, and mutual funds information available on Reuters.com, video, mobile, and interactive television platforms. Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests. NYSE and AMEX quotes delayed by at least 20 minutes. Nasdaq delayed by at least 15 minutes. For a complete list of exchanges and delays, please click here.

Other News on Thursday, 22 December 2011
Kremlin rights council urges Khodorkovsky review |
Finnish police probe ship with missile cargo |
Analysis: Chechnya: How did Putin's party win 99 percent? |
U.N. rights head: Bahrain failing to punish abuses |
Facebook to boost privacy after Irish probe |
Don't expect the phone to replace the wallet soon |
Angry Birds finally available on RIM's PlayBook |
Analysis: Relaxed U.S. securities laws could boost SecondMarket |
Investment fund pushes for AOL strategy shake-up |
Bonobos caught with pants down on top shopping day |
Mystery buyer acquires vatican.xxx web address |
A Minute With: Steven Spielberg on Tintin and War Horse |
China slams Christian Bale for creating news |
Michael Douglas' son handed more prison time |
Michael Buble wraps up 4th week atop album chart |
Spaniard arrested in Madonnaleaks case |
Arab team prepares Syria mission after deadly assault |
Death toll in Baghdad bombings rises to 40: official |
Cairo calmer as Egyptian election resumes |
Italy's Monti faces key final vote on austerity |
Congo forces kill 24 since vote results: HRW |
Protest against power plant in S.China escalates: papers |
Norway panel split on killer's mental diagnosis: TV |
Almost 70 reporters killed worldwide in 2011: RSF |
Australian boy jailed for 13 years for murdering Indian student |
Yahoo to weigh deals for Asian assets: sources |
Elpida to seek tie-up with Taiwan's Nanya: report |
Verizon says it fixed 4G network problem |
Tepid PC sales weigh on Micron's results |
X Factor finalists back to roots with audition songs |
Hobbit trailer has film fans buzzing |
Rooney Mara preps for stardom with Dragon Tattoo |
Judge upholds extradition for Survivor producer |
Judge tosses lawsuit over Jimmy Kimmel sketch |
Michael Douglas' son handed more prison time |
Michael Buble wraps up 4th week atop album chart |
Exclusive: Pakistan army wants Zardari out but not a coup |
2011 Year of the Tyrant, 2012 ominous for Syria, Iraq |
Italy parliament votes to seal austerity budget |
Russia's Medvedev tries to appease protesters |
Yemen protesters demand Saleh trial, denounce government |
French lawmakers back genocide bill, Turkey recalls envoy |
New Afghan opposition coalition says can check Karzai |
Apple nears German court rebuff in row with Samsung |
New iPhone? No thanks, say cash-conscious Europeans |
China tightens rules for microblog publishers: Xinhua |
EBay buys German technology company |
German patent firm sues retailers to halt HTC sales |
Stonehenge app offers virtual solstice tour |
Evernote memory aid apps recall people, meals |
Zhang, Bale blossom together on Flowers of War |
BookTalk: John Brown's Midnight Rising |
George Michael released from Vienna hospital: report |
British folk group mixes rural traditions with Christmas |
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph		BlogMeter 1.01