MOSCOW, March 15 (UPI) -- President Vladimir Putin is even more popular among the Chechens whose revolt he crushed than among ordinary Russians, Russian authorities said Monday.
Putin won a second four-year presidential term in a landslide victory, taking 71 percent of all votes cast in Sunday's election.
But Russia's Central Election Commission reported Monday that support for him was even higher in the little Chechen Republic in the Caucasus, where over the past four years, he has ruthlessly crushed a secessionist rebellion.
Preliminary CEC data showed that 93.9 percent of voters in Chechnya had supported Putin, with 26.2 percent of voting results processed, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
Western journalists visiting Chechnya have reported that guerrilla resistance to occupying Russian forces there remains significant.
