Police in Russias Chelyabinsk region detained around 20 Roma for crime prevention talks after ethnic tensions flared last week over a womans murder, local mediareported Sunday.Enraged residents in the town of Korkino gathered Thursday night outside homes believed to belong to Roma, where they damaged property and clashed with riot police.
The unrest came amid rumors that two Romani men stabbed a woman to death.At the time, local media identified the murdered woman as Yelena Sarafanova, a mother of two and a taxi driver.
However, regional authoritiesreferred to her by the name of Yelena Manzhosova.Regional investigatorsarrested a 17-year-old in Korkino on suspicion of killing the woman, who had been driving him home as a passenger.
Another male was also arrested as part of the ongoing murder investigation.After a video circulating on social media showed uniformed agents escorting a group of men into a police van, law enforcement officials in the Chelyabinsk region confirmed that 20 Roma had been detained in the town of Troitsk on Sunday.They were given preventive talks about the inadmissibility of committing offenses and were then released, the 74.ru news websitequoted the regional branch of Russias Interior Ministry as saying.On Saturday, Chelyabinsk region Governor Alexei Teksler ordered police raids at the homes of Romani residents as he reprimanded local authorities for failing to identify an ethnic conflict, which spilled out into last weeks clashes between riot police and an angry mob.Last week, Russias Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, decried long-standing concerns about the Romani communitys unlawful behavior, which has not been resolved.