​Anti-Gypsy protests in Chemodanovka

On June 13, a mass brawl broke out in the village of Chemodanovka, Penza Region, as a result of which one person died. On June 14, the villagers went to a people's gathering and blocked the federal highway "Ural", demanding the eviction of the Roma, who are considered the perpetrators of the conflict. On June 15, in the village of Lopatki, located near Chemodanovka, there was a major fire in the house where the Roma lived.

On June 14, 2019, a people's gathering was held in the village of Chemodanovka, Penza Region. The reason for the gathering was a domestic conflict that occurred between the villagers and the gypsies on the evening of June 13th. The cause of the conflict is not exactly known. According to some Penza media, the reason was that the gypsies molested the daughter or daughters of local residents. Nadezhda Demeter, President of the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Russian Gypsies, said that the incident occurred due to a quarrel between children, and the villagers came to the Gypsies' house. Journalists who were going to anonymously interview the victim girl or woman (or three, as in one of the versions) in order to write a story, could not find her. Further, several local residents came to the gypsy house to "appoint the shooter." The next day, there was a massive brawl on the pond. According to the Investigative Committee for the Penza region, five people were injured in the fight. Vladimir Grushin (born in 1985) was hospitalized and died on the evening of June 14 from a head injury. The bus driver at the local school, Sergei Pugachev, was also hospitalized and underwent a craniotomy. During the fight, the gypsies, who were not participating in the fight, damaged the property of the villagers and threatened witnesses. There were no police in the village itself. The police from the regional center were called for a fight, the police arrived as part of four people in one car, and when they saw what was happening, they called the riot police from the regional center. The riot police arrived and intervened in the clash.

Initially, the case was initiated under part 4 of article 111 of the Criminal Code (intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm resulting in the death of the victim). The case was later reclassified as s. "g", "and" part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code (murder committed by a group of persons by prior agreement, out of hooligan motives) and Part 3 of Art. 30 and pp. "a", "g", "and" part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code (attempted murder of two or more persons, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, out of hooligan motives). 174 people were brought to the internal affairs bodies for interrogations, three participants in the conflict were detained. The head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, transferred the criminal case of the murder to the Main Investigation Department. The Moscow police arrived at the scene.

On June 14, the villagers organized a national gathering, which brought together about 1,000 people. Ivan Belozertsev, the governor of the Penza region, came to Chemodanovka and declared that none of the perpetrators would escape responsibility. The participants blocked the federal highway M-5 "Ural", which runs right through the center of the village. The people demanded that all Roma be evicted from Chemodanovka. The road was closed for over an hour. In a video from the gathering posted by local residents on Instagram, cries of “Evict! Move out!" Around 21:00 OMON cleared the road. In the Bessonovsky district, the Volcano plan was introduced to suppress possible riots. In Chemodanovka, under the leadership of the governor, an operational headquarters was created to stabilize the situation.

On July 17, it became known that the Bessonovsky District Court of the Penza Region found six people who participated in blocking the highway guilty under Part 1 of Art. 20.2.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (mass simultaneous stay of citizens in public places, which interfered with the movement of pedestrians or vehicles). Some of them were fined, and some - compulsory work.

On June 15, a large fire broke out in the village of Lopatki, located near Chemodanovka. The wooden house and outbuildings burned down. There were no casualties. There have been suggestions on social networks that the fire started as a result of arson and was the result of a conflict in Chemodanovka. According to media reports, gypsies lived in the burnt house. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the region reported that a criminal case had been opened under Part 2 of Article 167 of the Criminal Code (intentional destruction or damage to property, committed out of hooligan motives, by arson, explosion or other generally dangerous method).

On the night of June 15, a post appeared in the local community "Penza live " on the social network "VKontakte" (about 160 thousand subscribers), which spoke about the beginning of the "war" against the Roma. In parallel with this, fake news was spreading that the gypsies had appointed July 1 as a day of revenge and were going to the village with gasoline.

A message appeared in the Penza live public that the residents of the gypsy village hastily left their homes. Pastor-evangelist Sergey Kireev wrote on his VKontakte page that from 5 to 10 am they were evacuating our Roma community. "Now our entire gypsy community is outside the Penza region," he said.

On June 17, Roskomnadzor demanded that social networks remove information about the conflict in the Penza village, which was recognized by the Prosecutor General's Office as unreliable. In particular, VKontakte blocked the Chemodanovka on Fire community "due to calls for violent action." Earlier, the governor of the Penza region, Ivan Belozertsev, during a meeting with residents of Chemodanovka at a “people's gathering” on June 14, accused Western countries of financing provocateurs who spread false information about the situation in the village on social networks. Belozertsev said that the United States and other Western countries are behind the conflict in the village. According to the governor, "in every Russian region there are trained people who are engaged in destabilizing the situation in the country, receiving funding from Western countries for this."

On June 17, in the local house of culture, the villagers were received by the leaders of the Penza Investigative Committee, the regional prosecutor's office and the commissioner for human rights. The head of the village council, Sergei Fadeev, said that about 900 gypsies from the villages of Chemodanovka and Lopatki were forcibly sent to the Volgograd region. “ ...All the gypsies who lived here were taken to the Volgograd region, where the local diaspora agreed to shelter them. It was forced. Now the issue of the legality of their residence in our village council is being studied ... So far we do not know what to do with their property, if it is legally registered: this is the next stage of our work . When asked by residents about when the Roma would return to the villages, Fadeev replied that this would not happen in the near future, or maybe not at all. On what exactly the question of the return of the gypsies depends, Fadeev did not explain. On the same day, the press service of the regional government reported that the information about the forced departure was not true. “There was no forced deportation of the Roma population from the village,” the press service said. The authorities noted that some Roma voluntarily left Chemodanovka.

A month after the conflict, the media reported that Roma families began to return to Chemodanovka. No clashes with other villagers were reported.   Sources

• Murder in Chemodanovka. Local residents demanded to evict the Roma // Mediazone. 2019. June 16.
• Near Penza, a large fire broke out in a gypsy village // Znak.com. 2019. June 16.
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• Employees of the Central Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs from Moscow left for Chemodanovka // RBC. 2019. June 15.
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• Based on social media.
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