Chechens pick new leader today

MAKHACHKALA, Russia - Ten years after Chechnya descended into war, and less than four months after its president was assassinated in a bomb blast, Chechens vote for his successor today in an atmosphere of violence and suspicion.

The tense atmosphere has been worsened by suspicions that Chechen rebels might have had a part in last week's double airliner disaster that killed 90 people. Russia's Federal Security Service revealed in recent days that traces of the high explosive hexogen were found in the wreckage of both planes, indicating the work of terrorists.

The muted response of President Vladimir Putin's government to these revelations suggests it does not want to mar the election by highlighting any embarrassing security lapses.

The government portrays the election as a step toward restoring order and says it has the separatist region under control. But it has seen its claims undermined by persistent rebel strikes such as a bloody attack on police stations in the region.

Some 17,000 Russian soldiers and Chechen police are on round-the-clock election vigils. Russian forces claim to have killed dozens of separatist fighters, and Chechen police reportedly are under orders to fire at anyone wearing a mask.

Seven candidates are running to fill the late Akhmad Kadyrov's post, but six are seen as symbolic rivals to the apparent Kremlin favorite, Maj. Gen. Alu Alkhanov, Chechnya's top police official.

Many doubt the election is a true gauge of Chechens' real choice of leader. The election that brought Kadyrov to power in October was widely criticized as neither free nor fair. The 52-year-old Chechen president was killed May 9 in a bombing during a Victory Day parade in Grozny.

"All elections that have ever been held in Chechnya have been illegitimate," said Sergei Kovalyov, a leading Russian human rights advocate. Connecticut-sized Chechnya, a mainly Muslim territory in southern Russia, went through a devastating 1994-96 war until Russian forces pulled out, leaving it effectively independent.

The Russians swept back into Chechnya in September 1999 after Chechen rebels raided neighboring regions and were blamed for bombings that killed 300 people at apartment buildings in Russian cities.

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