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Agence France-Presse

Aman Tuleyev, the long-time governor of Russia’s Kemerovo region where a huge mall fire killed at least 64 people including 41 children last weekend, resigned on Sunday.
Tuleyev, who had been at the helm of the key coal-mining region since 1997, said in a video address that he could no longer remain at his post with “such a heavy burden” and added that his resignation was “the only right choice”.
President Vladimir Putin accepted his resignation, the Kremlin said.
The fire ravaged a mall in the industrial city of Kemerovo in western Siberia last Sunday, a tragedy that plunged Russia into shock.
Some parents lost all their children, and the youngest victim was a two-year-old toddler.
Many people who lost relatives have said they died because of the inaction of firefighters and police lacking the necessary equipment and skills.

Tuleyev himself came under heavy criticism for failing to visit the scene of the tragedy in the first few days or meet with angry relatives.
Putin – who travelled to Kemerovo last Tuesday – had initially refused to sack the 73-year-old governor despite rare protests in the city.
Tuleyev apologised to the president over the rally – where protesters also called for Putin’s resignation – calling its organisers troublemakers.
Officials have said that multiple safety rules were violated, the fire alarm system was not working and staff did not follow correct emergency procedures.

Sergei Tsivilyov, who has been Tuleyev’s deputy since March, has been appointed acting governor, the Kremlin said.
The ailing Tuleyev had long been expected to leave the post.
The coal-mining Kemerovo region of around 2.7 million people has traditionally been considered one of Russia’s most troubled regions and some have feared that Tuleyev’s departure could spark a leadership crisis there.
Tuleyev, who first became governor in the era of president Boris Yeltsin in 1997, is one of Russia’s longest-serving top officials.
He was credited with helping pacify the region which was beset by miners’ strikes in the turbulent 1990s but had come to symbolise the worst excesses of authoritarianism in his later years, critics say.
Polls to elect a new governor will be held in September.


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Russia

Veteran Russian governor resigns after deadly shopping centre fire that killed dozens of children

Last Sunday’s fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union, swept through a cinema complex and children’s play area on the upper floors of the Winter Cherry shopping centre in the regional capital

A picture taken on March 29, 2018 shows a petting zoo area in the fire-gutted shopping mall in the industrial city of Kemerovo in western Siberia. / AFP PHOTO / Dmitry Serebryakov

An aerial view taken with a drone on March 29, 2018 shows a shopping mall after it was gutted by a fire in the industrial city of Kemerovo in western Siberia. / AFP PHOTO / Dmitry Serebryakov

Long-time Kemerovo regional Governor Aman Tuleyev has resigned. Photo: AP

Vladimir Putin blames ‘criminal negligence’ for Russia shopping centre fire that killed 41 children

Five people have been arrested including an official of the mall’s security firm who is suspected of deactivating the public address system when the fire broke out

epa06631531 Russian President Vladimir Putin (2-LRmnyaya Vishnya shopping center in the West Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia, 27 March 2018. According to media reports, 64 people died in the fire. EPA-EFE/ALEXEI DRUZHININ / SPUTNIK / KREMLIN POOL MANDATORY CREDIT

This Russian Emergency Situations Ministry photo, taken on Monday, March 26, 2018, shows an aerial view of emergency services working at the scene of the multi-storey shopping centre after Sunday's fire, in the Siberian city of Kemerovo, about 3,000 kilometres (1,900 miles) east of Moscow, Russia. Russian officials say that fire escapes were blocked and a public address system was turned off at the shopping mall, that killed over 50 people. Witnesses reported no alarms and no staff to help them leave the Winter Cherry mall in Kemerovo. ((Russian Ministry for Emergency Situations photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin visits a makeshift memorial site for the victims of a fire at the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping centre in the West Siberian city of Kemerovo. Photo: EPA

64 dead as fire rips through Russian shopping centre, no alarms reported

A photo taken from video provided by Russian Emergencies Ministry shows a site of a fire at a shopping centre in Kemerovo, Russia on Sunday. Photo: Reuters

epa06629877 Russian people grieve near a shopping center Zimnaya Vishnya in the West Siberian city of Kemerovo, Russia, 25 March 2018. At least 56 people reportedly died, including many children and around 60 are still lost. EPA-EFE/ALEXANDER PATRIN/A42.RU

This handout picture released by The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry on March 25, 2018, shows emergency vehicles as they gather outside a burning shopping centre in Kemerovo. Five people including a child have died and another 30 were wounded in a major fire in a Siberian shopping centre, Russia's Investigative Committee said. "Three women, a child and a man have been killed" and 30 people hospitalised following the blaze in the Winter Cherry shopping centre in Kemerovo, an industrial city in central Siberia, it said in a statement. / AFP PHOTO / RUSSIAN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS MINISTRY / HO / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / RUSSIAN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS MINISTRY" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. RUSSIA'S EMERGENCY SITUATIONS MINISTRY

News

World

Russia & Central Asia

Last Sunday’s fire, one of the deadliest in Russia since the break-up of the Soviet Union, swept through a cinema complex and children’s play area on the upper floors of the Winter Cherry shopping centre in the regional capital
