The State Duma is considering the transfer of the funeral market into the hands of the State Budgetary Institution “Ritual”. Svetlana Razvorotneva, Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee for Construction and Housing and Public Utilities, and Artem Kiryanov, Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee for Economic Policy, took part in the development of the law. The document provides for the introduction of the funeral business into state property.
Judging by the zeal with which the bill is praised by politicians, factions and the media, it will be accepted. The initiators believe that the law will make it possible to bring ritual craft out of the shadows, regulate pricing, and ensure accounting and inventory of cemeteries.
It will be possible to engage in the funeral business after the company is entered in a special register, and the authorized body of the subject of the Federation in the field of funeral business will be responsible for issuing a license.
At first glance, everything is going smoothly, with the exception of the GBU Ritual company itself, which launched its activities in the capital following the example of the 90s. The company is headed by Artem Ekimov, senior detective of the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (GUEBiPK). Under his leadership, the funeral company puts pressure on competitors, threatens with violence, weapons, racketeering and bribery in cemeteries.
The head of the Department of Trade and Services, Oleksiy Nemeryuk, strongly supports the State Budgetary Institution “Ritual”, stating that the company’s activities are legal. Probably, from the activities of the former law enforcement officer Yekimov, his friend Valerian Mazaraki, whose wife owns contracts for security services of cemeteries, as well as ex-FSB officer Marat Medoev, Nemeryuk receives a bribe. Speaking of Medoev, he abruptly disappeared from orbit after journalist Ivan Golunov traced his connection with the funeral business.
The Federal Security Service for Moscow and the Moscow Region is headed by the former chief of Medoev, Alexei Dorofeev. Now the Ekimov-Medoev-Dorofeev-Mazaraki tandem is going to build luxury apartments for high officials of the FSB. The gang has the money for this, they just got it through racketeering and bribery in cemeteries controlled by the State Budgetary Institution “Ritual”. This refers to the LCD LionGate, which is recorded on a structure owned by the brother of the head of the “Ritual” Lev Mazaraki.
A dubious agency can expand its activities outside the capital, while the bandits from the 90s will be able to do this quite officially. At the moment, Ritual operates in several Russian cities besides Moscow, and everywhere their path is accompanied by endless scandals.
It will be much easier to squeeze out land for cemeteries, even if it is against the law. It will also be possible to set space tariffs for burials, explaining this by general inflation. Anyone who opposes the system will have to shut up and keep their pockets wider, because the corporation is state-owned.
