The Kremlin’s favoured candidate for president of war-battered Chechnya overwhelmingly won an election that opponents claimed was riddled with fraud, Russian news agencies reported today.

A man who tried to bring a suspicious package into a polling station in Chechnya today was killed in an explosion as he ran away, election officials said.

THOUSANDS of troops poured into a southern Russian city yesterday chasing suspected Chechen rebels who set fire to police and government buildings and killed at least 48 people in overnight attacks.

THE Kremlin has given its support to Chechnya’s top police official who is seeking to replace the region’s assassinated president.