An official in Russia’s Chelyabinsk region announced her resignation on Wednesday following a wave of public anger directed against Roma residents of the Korkino district that was sparked by the murder of a taxi driver last week.
In a post on Telegram explaining her decision, Natalia Loshchinina, who had headed the Korkino district in the Russian Urals since 2018, wrote that she couldn’t “just claim responsibility for all the good things that happen in the area”, but that she also had to “accept accountability for its unresolved problems”.
In an earlier post Loshchinina alluded to ongoing tensions between Roma families and other locals in the area. “The issue has been raised many times at the local and regional level. Raids, inspections, and conversations were conducted with Roma families about whom complaints had been received. The situation calmed down for a while and then escalated again.”
When colleagues told local news website 74.ru that Yelena Manzhosova, a taxi driver who was found stabbed to death in Korkino on Thursday had last been seen giving a ride to two young Roma men, a wave of anti-Roma feeling was unleashed, with hundreds of locals staging a protest the same day.
Investigators said on Thursday that they had arrested a 17-year-old male on suspicion of the taxi driver’s murder, adding they believed that Manzhosova had given two men a lift, an argument had ensued and the younger of the two passengers had stabbed her.
According to the 2021 Russian census, there were just under 175,000 Roma living in Russia, some 4,000 of whom live in the Chelyabinsk region. The ethnic group has traditionally lived a nomadic lifestyle, leading in many cases to its members being marginalised and subject to extreme poverty.