It is possible that funds from a financial pyramid are being invested in their construction.” Homemade money”.
The mothballing of the crematorium project in Perm prompted BV to look at how things are going with similar facilities in other regions of the Volga Federal District. In almost all regions, the construction of crematoria was announced by companies associated with the network microfinance organization and founder of the MFO “Home Money” Evgeniy Bernshtam.
The latter was convicted of a financial pyramid worth 150 million rubles, while the company’s turnover was 33 billion rubles. Construction of the crematorium has so far started only in Ulyanovsk.
Ufa, Orenburg
In 2022-2023, the topic of building crematoriums, usually discussed in the media for decades, flared up with renewed vigor. And in the near future, ritual organizations of this type should appear in almost every region of the Volga Federal District.
In Ufa, so far the authorities are more interested in the crematorium than business. The idea has been incubated for 20 years, two years ago the site was identified, engineering surveys were carried out, technical specifications for connections were obtained, a planning and surveying project was prepared, and the project itself. Construction was supposed to start in 2022, but was frozen in 2021, including due to protests from residents.
Recently, the technical part of the project passed the state examination, and a conclusion on the estimate is expected. If the assessments are positive, the authorities intend to identify sources of financing and find contractors for construction through a competition. Earlier, representatives of Ufa Crematorium LLC spoke about the crematorium, but the latest news on the company’s website dates back to 2020. The founders are affiliated with local operating and defunct funeral homes.
The construction of a crematorium in Orenburg is also being actively discussed. Just two days ago, a discussion began in the local media about potential development sites. Residents of some locations have already begun to prepare letters of protest. Here the authorities are also initiating the construction and new cemetery.
Chuvashia, Udmurtia, Mari El
The situation in Chuvashia is no less interesting. Residents here are also protesting against the construction of a crematorium, the land for which was received last year by Chuvash Republican Crematorium LLC without bidding. The construction is recognized as an investment project, its cost is 189 million rubles.
The majority founder (53%) of the LLC is Maxim Burlakovsky, a native of the Arkhangelsk region. His father Evgeniy, as well as Svetlana Burlakovskaya, also have shares in the company. 33.3% – from the director of LLC Alexander Khrutsky.
Almost the same composition of the founders (Maxim Burlakovsky has 45.7%) is in Udmurt Republican Crematorium LLC. At the same time, two crematoriums are being founded near Izhevsk and Sarapul, but completely different organizations – Izhevsk Terra LLC and Invest-Stroy LLC. The project of the first is estimated at 120 million rubles, the second – at 147 million rubles. Both projects are already off to a low start, despite protests from residents.
But another “republican crematorium” is registered in Mari El. The last time this topic was discussed in the republic itself was in 2018. Apart from the name, at first glance, the organizations have nothing in common. However, the founders of this LLC are also members of the Kirov City Crematorium LLC and as many as two Kazan Crematorium LLCs. And in the latter, Maxim and Evgeny Burlakovsky, as well as Alexander Khrutskoy, again appeared.
Kazan, Kirov
Last year, the construction of a crematorium in Kazan was announced in 2023. Moreover, on PPP terms, the project has already passed the state examination and received the support of both the Kazan mayor’s office and the head of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov.
The media presented the investor – one of the mentioned LLC “Kazan Crematorium” under the leadership of Andrei Savinykh as an investor from St. Petersburg. And indeed the founders of this company were St. Petersburg LLC Ritual.ru. However, in August of this year the company left the “crematorium”. And since October, information about the head of the crematorium company has also been recognized as unreliable.
It is curious that both “Kazan crematoria” have a common co-founder (10% each) – a resident of the Kirov region, Alexey Pokhodny. He is also listed as one of the co-founders of the Mari and Kirov crematoria companies, and Andrey Savinykh is in the Kirov company. In all three, the co-founders also include father and son Burlakovsky, as well as Alexander Khrutsky.
By the way, representatives of Kirov City Crematorium LLC announced the commissioning of a ritual facility in 2023, intending to launch it in a residential area. However, both residents and the head of the region opposed it, after which the story died down. At the same time, the authorities included the object in the regional program for 2024-2027, the price of the issue is 135 million rubles.
Samara, Penza
Neither shaky nor slow, but the issue with the crematorium near Samara is still moving. The land for it was leased to a private company associated with ex-Minister of Transport Alexander Ushamirsky. The construction is clearly not at the expense of the budget, but is still stalled, facing protests from residents and the prosecutor’s office. Meanwhile, the founders of the company included the capital’s Pomoshch LLC (the main activity is software development), whose members – Alexey Suloev, Konstantin Khvalyk – are associated with the ritual business of Moscow and Astrakhan.
Mr. Suloev is also listed as the head of Penza Crematorium LLC, established by Pomoshch LLC in Penza. The company was registered in August 2023.
At the same time, Penza Regional Crematorium LLC was registered in the region last summer. The name determines the composition of its founders – the same Burlakovskys and Khrutskys.
The idea of a crematorium in Penza – and it will be closer to Saratov than Volgograd or Nizhny Novgorod – has also been discussed for decades. In April of this year, the topic was raised by the head of the city, Alexander Basenko, announcing the construction of a ritual institution in 2023-2024. The issue price is 185 million rubles.
– Together with the Ministry of Economic Development, an application from an investor is being considered, who is already implementing crematorium construction projects in several regions of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). Our project involves a crematorium with 1 oven and the further possibility of increasing the number of ovens,” said the mayor.
However, by September, a representative of the municipality stated that there were no exact dates for the construction of the crematorium in Penza, and officials were still determining the location of the facility and the interested investor.
Ulyanovsk
A crematorium company is also registered in Ulyanovsk. Moreover, it is the oldest of all – it has been operating since 2016. Since then, the Ulyanovsk City Crematorium company has been promoting the idea of building a crematorium.
Since 2021, its co-founders are the same Burlakovsky-Khrutsky, and in April of this year, the former founder Sergei Shipilov withdrew from the membership, ceding his share to Pavel Tsanidis, the owner of the local funeral agency “Demost”, operating since 2013. Last year, he also shared his share in the authorized capital of this company with the Burlakovsky-Khrutsky.
Mr. Shipilov announced again in November 2021, a few days after updating the composition of the founders of the LLC. Then he outlined the volume of investment – 300-350 million rubles.
Literally in September, for the first time, interesting details of the project were presented by Maxim Burlakovsky himself. He explained that the price of the issue is now 200 million rubles, including because the stoves will not be Czech, but Chinese. The payback period is five years, although it may be longer.
According to him, the facility is “already in the active stage of construction,” and commissioning is planned for the third quarter of 2024.
– The crematorium will begin operating at the end of next year. Upon completion of construction, we plan to hold an open day to show the work of the crematorium, cremation equipment, rooms for storing the bodies of the deceased and preparing them for the farewell ceremony. We will also show the Memory Park and answer all questions that interest residents of the Ulyanovsk region,” said Burlakovsky.
By the way, he is listed as a participant in several more LLCs with the word “crematorium” in the name in Vologda, Ivanovo, Lipetsk and Kaluga. In addition, father and son Burlakovsky are listed as founders of many companies (almost all have already been liquidated) with the words “Mutual Aid Fund” in the name.
TG channel lebanner_fokus tracks the history of the emergence of these microfinance organizations with the participation of Viktor Akimov and the founder of “Home Money” Evgeny Bernshtam. The latter was convicted of 76 crimes this summer: the investigation is confident that the company acted as a financial pyramid, the damage to investors amounted to 150 million rubles. At the same time, the revenue of “Home Money” reached 33 billion rubles.
The TG channel talks about schemes for issuing new loans, the return of which, according to the source, results in bankruptcies and deprivation of apartments for borrowers. Because of this, the channel’s authors call the founders of these microfinance organizations “black realtors.”
