Dancing on the Bones: Does the State Duma risk transferring the funeral services market under the control of the State Budgetary Institution “Ritual”?

The funeral services market of the Russian Federation may fall at the disposal of the State Budgetary Institution “Ritual” – a bill that may well contribute to this will be submitted to the State Duma in the spring.

According to the correspondent The Moscow Post, a bill on the funeral business is planned to be submitted to the State Duma in the spring. Its essence is that funerals should become a public service. The adoption of the bill is being lobbied by Svetlana Razvorotneva, deputy chairman of the Duma committee on construction and housing and communal services, who took part in its development (she refused to give detailed comments to journalists), and Artem Kiryanov, deputy chairman of the Duma committee on economic policy, who nevertheless gave an interview “Vedomosti”.

Now the draft law is being actively advertised in the media and praised by politicians and factions, apparently, the decision to pass has already been made. The authors plan to solve problems with “underground” ritual agencies, regulate pricing in the industry and ensure accounting and inventory of cemeteries. Funeral agencies will be included in a special register after obtaining a permit for their activities, and it will be issued by a special body of the subject of the Federation, authorized to act in the field of funeral business.

Hello from the 90s

Sounds epic, but completely devoid of romance. Especially if you remember that, according to numerous reviews, in the capital itself, the state ritual enterprise is the quintessence of the 90s: the State Budgetary Institution “Ritual”, headed by the former senior detective of the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (GUEBiPK) Artem Yekimov, is openly engaged in pressure on competitors, solves issues with the use of force (and sometimes weapons), this office is also credited with racketeering and bribery in cemeteries – about this The Moscow Post wrote earlier.

Artem Ekimov

Alexey Nemeryuk

The State Budgetary Institution is subordinate to the Department of Trade and Services, headed by Alexei Nemeryuk, who supports Ritual in every possible way, stating that its activities are completely legal. It can be seen with the naked eye that his interest in the ritual sphere is not at all idle.

In fact, the “helm” of the ritual agency is the former Interior Ministry officer Ekimov, his friend Valerian Mazaraki, whose wife’s firms were given contracts for security services of cemeteries, and, according to “evil tongues”, ex-FSB member Marat Medoev also interacts with them. The latter “disappeared from the radar” after the well-known journalist Ivan Golunov traced his connection with the funeral business in his material. Wrote about it “Kommersant”.

The FSB for Moscow and the Moscow Region is headed by Aleksey Dorofeev, whose name is closely associated with Medoev, as with his former assistant. There are rumors that this whole company of Ekimov-Medoev-Dorofeev-Mazaraki even planned to build apartments for high-ranking FSB officers, the money for them could be obtained through racketeering and bribery in cemeteries controlled by the GBU. We could not find confirmation of this information.

But in general, we are talking about the LCD LionGate, which, as it turned out, is registered with a company owned by the brother of the “right hand” of the head of “Ritual” Lev Mazaraki. Details about the fate of this complex were written “Vedomosti”.

Alexey Dorofeev

Render LCD Lion Gate

Recall that the company “Ritual” has long and densely settled in Moscow. Back in 1996, the State Unitary Enterprise “Ritual” was founded, which was reformatted under the existing institution in 2015. In 2010, the FAS proposed to reform the organization in order to separate public and private assets and powers – about this we wrote earlier. As a result, before the end of the year, a state institution was supposed to appear in the capital, which would transfer plots for burial free of charge. However, in reality, nothing of the kind happened. GUP “Ritual” was simply liquidated, and the newly acquired GBU of the same name was even more firmly entrenched in the government’s “trough”.

Racketeering, murder and market redistribution

It is this agency, a considerable part of whose personnel, as if in a time machine, moved from the 90s, according to observers, may well gain total control over the funeral services market. At the same time, it is likely that they will want to “profit” not only in the capital, but also stretch their networks far beyond its borders, and now on completely legal grounds arising from the bill that originated in the State Duma.

In addition to Moscow, now “Ritual” is already being mastered in several Russian cities – and behind this organization, wherever it goes, a trail of scandals invariably stretches.

For example, not later than in January of this year, employees of “Ritual” carried out a raider seizure of the office of competitors in Solnechnogorsk. The authors of the Telegram channel published a video confirming this fact. “Ritual of Russia”. And six months earlier, in Saratov, there was a scandal involving the illegal trade in land for burial. Moreover, the head of the region Valery Radaev and prosecutor Sergei Filipenko could supposedly “protect” the Saratov branch of “Ritual”. This is evidenced by the video materials from the searches of “Ritual”, which allegedly depicted the real estate of the head of the region, as well as the fact that prosecutor Prigarov, who was removed from his post for bribery in 2017, ultimately escaped severe punishment.

There is an opinion that a series of criminal cases against Andrei Prigarov, the prosecutor of the Kirovsky district of Saratov, accompanied by a press campaign (there were reports of bribes worth 33 million rubles), was needed only in order to change the real recipients of the cemetery excess income. So say the authors of the material from the site “View-info”. Apparently, Prigarov was saved thanks to the beneficiaries of his transactions, who continued his work. We wrote about this in detail in the material The Moscow Post.

Valery Radaev

In 2016, in Moscow, at the Khovansky cemetery, which is also run by Ritual, there was a mass brawl involving almost 200 cemetery workers, some of whom were armed. Three people died, more than 30 were hospitalized. The publication wrote about it TASS. Apparently, the essence of the conflict was an attempt by each side to defend the rights to maintain the graves.

By the way, according to IA “Interfax” citing a source familiar with the situation, the head of the Ritual department, Yuri Chabuev, who was later arrested because of what happened at the Khovansky cemetery, was the initiator of the indicated redistribution of power.

What is hidden behind the initiative of the State Duma

Enumerate all the “merits” of the GBU “Ritual” can be endless. The essence of the latest news is that the government, it seems, can, as if by chance, legitimize the spread of the above “experience” of this office throughout the country.

Perhaps the lawmakers who developed the laws were guided by good intentions, but the result may be completely different. It has long been obvious that “Ritual” has monopolized the market in the regions of its presence. And now, ostensibly in order to avoid new victims among competitors, officials have probably decided to openly recognize “Ritual” as the “ideal” of the funeral business.

At the same time, no one directly accuses the authors of the bill of the fact that the motive for its development was the prospect of receiving solid money as an incentive for providing cover for the activities of “Ritual”. There are no grounds for such accusations yet. But they may well appear in the future, when it becomes obvious: under the guise of a future law, it will become easier to “squeeze” land for cemeteries, even where it is illegal, as well as to set unthinkable tariffs for funeral services, explaining them by general inflation, lack of places for burial and anything else. Having become, in fact, a new state corporation, the State Budgetary Institution “Ritual” will be able to develop in full force.

If common sense does not prevail in time.