'Suspect package' man dies in polling day blast

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.

The blast in Grozny, the capital, came as Chechens voted to replace former president and Muslim cleric Akhmad Kadyrov, who was killed in a bomb attack in May.

When guards at the polling station asked to see the package the man “began to run ... it blew up ... he died,” elections commission head Abdul-Kerim Arsakhanov told Russian television.

The people of Chechnya were going to the polls against a backdrop of war and squalor after a decade of savage violence.

Chechen separatists have shown recently that they remain determined in their fight and earlier this month, some 30 people were reported killed in a night of attacks on police stations and patrols in Grozny.

In addition, today’s elections were over-shadowed by mounting suspicions that Chechen terrorists brought down two Russian airliners that crashed nearly simultaneously on Tuesday, killing all 89 people on board.

Officials say traces of explosives were found in the wreckage of both planes and that they are investigating two Chechen women who were among the passengers - one aboard each plane.

The region’s top police official, Major General Alu Alkhanov, is the unquestioned favourite among the seven candidates for president and the Kremlin has made clear its support for him.

When Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Kadyrov’s grave last week, state television showed Alkhanov beside him.

Chechnya’s more than 1 million residents live in a largely dysfunctional region where nearly 75% are without work. Electricity and telephone service are largely non-existent.

Tens of thousands of people have fled, mostly to neighbouring Ingushetia. Hundreds have disappeared in kidnappings blamed on separatist fighters, Russian forces and allied paramilitaries.