Moscow car crash injures Chechen prime minister

The prime minister of Russia’s conflict-torn province of Chechnya was in a serious but stable condition today after a car crash outside Moscow that officials insisted was a traffic accident despite initial concerns about a possible assassination attempt.

Sergei Abramov is the second most senior official in the Moscow-backed administration in Chechnya, which is to hold parliamentary elections in 10 days as part of the Kremlin’s plan to undermine the republic’s separatist rebels through restoring political and civil order.