WORLD : Estonians Suspend Vote Restriction

MOSCOW —  The Estonian Parliament backed down today and suspended clauses in a controversial local election law that had put the republic on a collision course with the Kremlin by depriving thousands of immigrant Russians of the vote.

Local journalists who followed the session, broadcast live on Estonian radio, said Parliament decided to let all those with permanent residence in the republic vote in a Dec. 10 election.

The law would have restricted the vote to people who had lived at least two years in a constituency.

The law provoked a rash of strikes by local Russian workers after it was passed by the Estonian Parliament in August. Strike committees set up by the local Russian community, who form almost half of the republic’s 1.5 million population, said the residence requirement threatened to turn them into second-class citizens.