Vladimir Shamanov, a former senior commander of Russian forces in Chechnya tarred by allegations of human rights abuses, has been elected governor of the Ulyanovsk region preliminary results showed Monday.
Shamanov took 56.21 percent of votes in the region in Russia's Volga, compared to 23.57 for the incumbent communist governor, Yury Goryachev, RIA-Novosti news agency cited the electoral commission as saying.
"We have to wait another 24 hours before the results are announced but the gap is so wide between me and my rival, who we can start calling the ex-governor, that nothing can affect the outcome," a triumphant Shamanov said on public RTR television.
"I don't intend to please everybody. I intend to guarantee Russian laws and humanitarian values," the general said.
Shamanov was one of three Russian generals in charge of a federal intervention against separatist rebels in breakaway Chechnya launched on October 1, 1999, now nearly into its 15th month.
He was removed from duty last January over allegations he was involved in the massacre of civilians in a Chechen village southwest of Grozny -- MOSCOW (AFP)
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