Acting President Vladimir Putin has vowed to hunt down and crush Chechen rebel leaders as soldiers began voting at improvised polling stations in the rebel region. Most Russians are due to elect Boris Yeltsin's successor on March 26, but sailors and other voters in remote areas have begun casting ballots. They were joined by soldiers involved in active fighting.
NTV television showed groups of servicemen wearing camouflage queuing up outside a tent polling station with papers ready to prove their identity. A jazz band entertained them after they cast their ballots. Putin, speaking to reporters on a train after a visit to an industrial town outside Moscow, said Chechen rebel leaders should expect the same treatment as Salman Raduyev, captured and brought to Moscow this week. Raduyev was shown on television listlessly answering a prosecutor's questions.
"Did you see who was brought to Moscow by the FSB a few days ago?" Putin said. "This is one of those people who have been terrorising the country, the whole country, great Russia. What did he look like? Did you notice? He didn't look much like a terrorist, but like some sort of an animal. We will reduce them all to such a state."
Putin has built much of his huge lead in opinion polls on his tough stand against Chechnya and his strong defence of the campaign against Western criticism. Russia, he said, had to guard against "terrorist" threats. "But we must not be scared of them. Nor should we expose ourselves. Our reaction should measure up to the threat."
Moscow has blamed rebels for a series of apartment bomb blasts which killed nearly 300 people last year. The rebels have denied involvement and authorities have yet to publish any proof.
