Chechens voted for a parliament Sunday. The Kremlin says the vote shows progress after 10 years of secessionist violence. Human rights groups call the vote a political farce.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: Voters in the Russian republic of Chechnya cast ballots today for a local      parliament.  The election is supposed to be the final stage of a Kremlin      plan to restore order in the breakaway republic, where tens of thousands      of people have died in a decade of war.  NPR's Gregory Feifer is      reporting on the vote and joins me now.</s>DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: Greg, we should be clear it's very difficult for reporters to travel      independently in Chechnya, and you've been escorted today by Russian      security forces.  Are they with you now?</s>GREGORY FEIFER reporting: Yes.  We're actually in an army base in the city of Grozny.  We crossed      the border into Chechnya this morning.  We were escorted by Russian      special forces, heavily armed with high-caliber automatic rifles.  We saw      two voting stations in the north of the country, which is relatively      pro-Moscow.  We saw some activity when we arrived, but there were almost      no voters when we left. Then we drove south to Grozny, where we saw a      voting station amid bombed-out buildings, and that voting station was      virtually empty.  I think I saw maybe two people actually voting.</s>GREGORY FEIFER reporting: Most voters whom I spoke with gave virtually the same answers to the      questions that I posed them.  They all said, `We're for peace and      friendship, and we expect that from these elections.'  But I did manage      to speak to a number of Chechens who said that the process was a joke,      that you can't talk about democratic elections in what's essentially a      war zone.</s>DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: Did you get the sense that the people that you were speaking      with were telling you something because they felt like that's all they      could say with the officers there?</s>FEIFER: That's absolutely right.  People feel very constrained.  I      actually got four or five winks, people saying that they support the      elections and they expect the best and, you know, winking at me that      that's really not what they believe at all.</s>DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: We used to hear a lot about the separatist war there in      Chechnya, you know, Russian planes bombing cities, rebels attacking      Russian soldiers, assassinating local officials even.  Is Chechnya any      more stable now?</s>FEIFER: Well, the Kremlin says it's more stable, certainly.  The Kremlin      says there's a political process going on and that these elections are      part of that process, the final step.  And most of the candidates running      in this election say that the situation has stabilized.  But human rights      groups say that that's just an illusion, that it's really an image of a      political process presented by the Kremlin to hide an intractable      stalemate.  Human rights defenders speak of two Chechnyas:  One is the      Kremlin's image, in which there's rebuilding and a peace process going      on; and a second Chechnya, which is the real Chechnya, in which violence      continues and there are disappearances and people die almost daily.</s>DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: Do you have the sense that the citizens of Chechnya think that      the vote today will in any way change things there?</s>FEIFER: Some people say that even if a few independent candidates get      elected, it will be beneficial to Chechnya.  One of the things that's      striking is that the candidates spoke a lot about social and economic      programs, programs to get the youth off the streets.  But again, human      rights groups say that the candidates are afraid to speak about the      number-one concern for all Chechens, and that's security.  And they say      they're afraid to talk about it because they're fearful themselves and      that that's just part of the terror that's still very much part of this      whole region.</s>DEBBIE ELLIOTT, host: NPR's Gregory Feifer, talking with us from Grozny in Chechnya.      Thank you.</s>FEIFER: My pleasure.