Conflict between Gypsies and locals in Novosibirsk region

In Novosibirsk, a Gypsy encampment that settled down in the city's suburb of Pashino was placed under police protection after the locals threatened to use force against drug-selling Gypsies. In the evening on Wednesday, about 600 residents of Pashino gathered for a rally to protest against the proximity of the Gypsies encampment, which they said had been actively selling drugs and stealing things from houses and country cottages. They also said the Gypsies had been offering heroin to their kids and calling it "magic powder." The ralliers authored an appeal to the region's Governor Viktor Tolokonsky, asking him to find a better place for the Gypsy encampment and setting a condition that they would "use force against the Gypsies" unless the latters leave the village in the next three days.

Having read the letter, law enforcers from Novosibirsk decided to place the encampment under protection and put police patrols outside it. However, nothing extraordinary happened there during the night and the following day.

The encampment, which numbers about 100 people, settled down in Pashino in early summer, having travelled all the way from the Kemerovo region, from where reports said they had been driven away by locals.