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.
“I submitted my resignation letter to the Russian President,” he said in a three-minute video address released by his office.
Tuleyev, who had been at the helm of the key coal-mining region since 1997, said he could no longer remain at his post with “such a heavy burden” and added that his resignation was “the only right choice”.
At least 64 people—including 41 children— died when a huge fire ravaged a mall in the industrial city of Kemerovo in western Siberia last Sunday.
The tragedy — in which some parents lost all their children — plunged Russia into shock.
Many people who lost relatives have said they died because of the inaction of firefighters and police lacking the necessary equipment and skills.