Penza, 20 June 2019. PenzaNews. None of the gypsies who lived in Chemodanovka and Lopatki of the Penza region and left their homes after the conflict a week ago has not returned to the villages. This was said by spokeswoman of the governor and government of the region Dina Cheremushkina on Thursday, June 20.

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"They left on their own and they might return on their own, too. However, nobody has come back so far – not a single person. The information spread by the mass media is unreliable," the interlocutor said.

She noted that officially about 650 people were registered there but it was impossible to count the exact number of the people who had left the village because at that moment some people had had guests or relatives visiting them, others had been out of the village.

Dina Cheremushkina stressed that all Roma families from Chemodanovka and Lopatki had left the settlements completely voluntarily.

"Deportation is out of the question in principle. They made such a decision and left on their own initiative. Respectively, we do not know if they will return or not and when they will return, if they will, because it was their personal decision," she explained.

The spokeswoman added that it was not known exactly where the families who had decided to leave the villages had gone to.

"We do not have such information because they are not obliged to notify us. I think they have gone to their relatives'," the interlocutor said.