Russia's ethnic affairs chief denies nationalistic motives behind conflict in Tula's Plekhanovo village
MOSCOW. March 17 (Interfax) - The information disseminated by a number of media outlets of a "gypsy riot" in the village of Plekhanovo, in the Tula region, is false; the problems that arose there have nothing to do with inter-ethnic relations and are exclusively of a legal nature, said Igor Barinov, head of Russia's Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs (FADN).
"At present, the federal media citing local sources are actively disseminating false information that on the morning of March 17, several hundred - between 300 and 500, according to various reports - police, internal troops, riot police, the special rapid response team, patrol post police and even training-dog experts arrived in the village in the Tula region. Media headlines have been peppered with provocative headlines of a 'gypsy riot'," Barinov told senior FADN officials on Thursday.
He stressed that this data was false. "Only yesterday, March 16, the situation was taken under control by local authorities, and Tula regional authorities are now doing all they can to normalize the gas pipeline in the village, which officially has a population of 10,000 people," he said.
Barinov cited figures from the Tula regional government, whereby Plekhanovo is home to 250-300 gypsy houses, of which only 30% are legal, while the rest were effectively built illegally. "This is exactly why some Plekhanovo residents have no legal grounds to sign gas supply contracts, and have been siphoning the gas," Barinov said.
On March 15, the staff of the Tula regional natural-gas service established an instance of violation of the integrity of the low pressure gas pipeline, leading them to partially turn off the gas supply.
According to the Tula regional police, only several police squads are currently in the village to provide public order, in the area where the gas pipeline is being fixed.
"The original source cited by a number of federal media outlets has already redacted the information about the alleged presence in the village of riot police, special rapid-response and other emergency teams. Meanwhile, the unverified information continues being re-printed by various news outlets, which experts say, could lead to an escalation in the conflict," the agency chief said.
"The situation in Plekhanovo is a bright example of escalation of an inter-ethic conflict in the media. This is not the first year that we have a situation involving illegal gas siphoning. There are even court orders to demolish several houses. But some are now trying to turn this situation into the subject of inter-ethnic relations, which is not correct. The roots of the problem lie exclusively within the legal field," the agency chief said.