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'Heavy burden': Russian governor resigns over Siberia mall fire that killed 64 'Heavy burden': Russian governor resigns over Siberia mall fire that killed 64
(about 5 hours later)
Aman Tuleyev, the longtime governor of Russia’s Kemerovo region where a huge shopping mall fire killed at least 64 people last weekend, has resigned. The longtime governor of a Russian region where a huge mall inferno killed dozens of people - most of them children - resigned on Sunday after bitter criticism over his response to the tragedy.
“I submitted my resignation letter to the Russian president,” he said in a three-minute video address released by his office on Sunday. Aman Tuleyev, who had been at the helm of the coal-mining region of Kemerovo since 1997, said in a video address that he could no longer remain at his post with “such a heavy burden” and that resigning was “the only right choice”.
Tuleyev, who had been at the helm of the key coal-mining region since 1997, said he could no longer remain at his post with “such a heavy burden” and added that his resignation was “the only right choice”. The Kremlin swiftly said that Vladimir Putin had accepted his resignation.
At least 64 people – including 41 children – died when a huge fire ravaged a mall in the industrial city of Kemerovo in western Siberia last Sunday. Tuleyev’s move is unusual as top officials in Russia rarely resign over failings in the emergency response to deadly tragedies.
The disaster – in which some parents lost all their children – shocked Russia. Many people who lost relatives have said they died because of the inaction of firefighters and police lacking the necessary equipment and skills. But the huge fire which ravaged a shopping centre in the Siberian industrial city of Kemerovo last Sunday, killing at least 64 people including 41 children, plunged Russia into shock.
Tuleyev himself came under heavy criticism for failing to visit the scene of the tragedy in the first few days or meet angry relatives. Some parents lost all their children, and the youngest victim was a two-year-old boy.
President Vladimir Putin had initially refused to sack the 73-year-old governor despite rare protests in the city. Many people who lost relatives have said they perished because of inaction by firefighters and police lacking the necessary equipment and skills, while some said a cinema door was locked, trapping children inside.
Officials have said that multiple safety rules were violated, the fire alarm system was not working and staff did not follow correct emergency procedures. Tuleyev, who himself lost a young relative in the blaze, came under heavy criticism for failing to visit the scene of the tragedy in the first few days or meet with angry relatives.
Putin had initially refused to sack the 73-year-old governor despite a rare protest which saw thousands of people pack a square in Kemerovo on Tuesday, the same day Putin travelled to the scene of the tragedy.
Tuleyev apologised to the president over the rally - where protesters also called for Putin’s resignation - calling its organisers troublemakers.
Seven people have been arrested in the aftermath of the blaze, investigators said.
The Kemerovo region has traditionally been considered one of Russia’s most troubled areas 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.
Opposition politician Vladimir Milov said it would take “decades” for the region to recover from Tuleyev’s 21-year rule.
Sergei Tsivilyov, who has been Tuleyev’s deputy since March, has been appointed acting governor, the Kremlin said. Tsivilyov is a business partner of one of Putin’s closest lieutenants, Gennady Timchenko, who has been under sanctions imposed on Russia for its role in the Ukraine conflict.
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