Kremlin-Backed Leader Wins Chechen Vote

The Kremlin's hand-picked man to lead Chechnya was declared the winner Monday in the region's presidential vote, a widely expected outcome praised by President Vladimir Putin as a sign of hope to end the bloody insurgency here born of nearly a decade of war. Akhmad Kadyrov, acting president of Chechnya and previously the leading Muslim cleric in this Caucasus province, received 81.1 percent of the vote with more than 77 percent of votes counted, said regional election commission chairman Abdul-Kerim Arsakhanov. Turnout was 85 percent, he said. Putin, not surprisingly, applauded Sunday's election, which came after a March referendum on a new constitution for Chechnya that reaffirmed its status as part of Russia.