Longtime governor Aman Tuleyev says he could no longer remain at his post 'with such a heavy burden'

MOSCOW, Russia – Aman Tuleyev, the longtime governor of Russia's Kemerovo region where a huge mall fire killed at least 64 people including 41 children last weekend, resigned on Sunday, April 1. "I want to tell you, residents of Kemerovo and all the region, that I will do everything for those guilty in this terrible tragedy to receive the harshest punishment," Tsivilyov said in a video address posted on the regional administration's website. Following the video address, Kremlin issued a statement, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted the resignation of Tuleyev, appointing Sergei Tsivilev the region's provisional governor. 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”. “It’s morally impossible.”

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.
Governor Aman Tuleyev of Russia's Kemerovo Oblast resigns over the disaster last week at the Winter Cherry complex. Tuleyev himself lost a young relative in the fire, but had faced protests in the aftermath.