Governor blames tensions on US after about 650 believed evicted from ChemodanovkaHundreds of Roma people have been forcibly evicted from a village in western Russia, the head of the village council has admitted, after one ethnic Russian was killed and another left in a coma. Four more were admitted to hospital after the street fighting, which was said to have been caused by complaints from Russian villagers against the Roma over sexual harassment. After Fadeev said hundreds of Roma had been forcibly evicted to Volgograd, the regional government said the families left peacefully. The governor’s office said it believed 650 Roma people had left the village of Chemodanovka, as well as the neighbouring village of Lopatka, but not by force. The incident is a particularly troubling example of the ethnic tensions that can emerge in small Russian towns and Roma communities, which gain little support from the government.

Source: The Guardian June 19, 2019 03:56 UTC