1/ With an estimated 200,000 men killed so far in the Ukraine war, business is booming for Russia's cemeteries. A 'cemetery mafia' is profiting by violently taking over cemeteries, funeral businesses and even hospitals, attacking funerals, and setting fire to rivals.

2/ A criminal gang led by Moldovan native Roman Ikizli is reported to have taken over cemeteries in the Leningrad region, using bribery, threats and violence against competitors. In September 2024, they were reported to have seized control of a district hospital near St Petersburg.

3/ Although municipalities own public cemeteries, by law they must create a specialised burial service or transfer these functions to a business selected competitively. The 'cemetery mafia' has been able to exploit this process to obtain cemeteries through bribery and violence.

4/ Ikizli's gang has reportedly expanded its influence across the Leningrad region since 2017. According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel, "the houses of those who tried to resist caught fire at night, and competitors were attacked right during burials in cemeteries."

5/ The gang took over cemeteries in the Lomonosov region in 2020 and, using baseball bats and other weapons, partly seized control of cemeteries at Petrodvorets and Kronstadt in St. Petersburg. The police have turned a blind eye, almost certainly with the aid of plentiful bribes.

6/ The takeovers have been accompanied by frequent violence directed at business rivals and funeral workers. At Slantsy, a saleswoman was locked in a funeral home pavilion which was set on fire. Another funeral home was burned down on the grounds of Lomonosov hospital.

7/ In the Vsevolozhsk region, a gun battle broke out between rival funeral companies during a funeral. As well as opening fire, they used a coffin with a deceased woman inside as a battering ram.

8/ A badly beaten cemetery worker told the media:

"I was met by three men ... in tracksuits. Without further ado, they listed the cemeteries in Vartemyagi and Nizhnie Oselki, saying that these were their cemeteries and that I would no longer work there. If I refused, they would break my legs or kill me."

9/ Izikli's gang is one of a number of gangster outfits in the regional cemetery mafia. They work closely with local hospitals and morgues to identify the recently or imminently deceased, and have their own people – including Izikli's girlfriend – working as hospital registrars.

10/ As VChK-OGPU puts it, "the registrar has access to the personal files of patients, can assess their condition, select hopeless ones on the verge of death, and be the first to get access to the contacts of relatives in order to transfer the bodies to "Iriy" and earn money on the preparation and sale of funeral accessories. Then, at the district cemeteries, people like Ikizli continue to fleece relatives, selling free services for many tens, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of rubles."

11/ Residents of Verkhnyaya Koloniya in the Lomonosov district complained to their representatives in October 2023 about huge fees being charged for ostensibly free plots in the cemetery managed by Ikizli's funeral company, Iriy. Similar complaints have been made elsewhere.

12/ The cemetery mafia have a reputation for dealing harshly with relatives of the deceased who refuse to pay their excessive fees. At the village of Lebyazhye, they attempted to prevent a grave being dug and threatened to bury the coffin in a garbage dump.

13/ Reportedly, only "the intervention of a large number of relatives of the deceased prevented the criminals from disrupting the funeral. However, the bandits hinted to relatives that it would be better not to put up a monument on the grave, since 'something will happen to it.'"

14/ Elsewhere, funeral gangsters have held bodies hostage, refusing to release them without the payment of last-minute fees. They have also operated illegal morgues to save on fees, with bodies stored in ice-cream refrigerators in one such facility in Samara.

15/ Not surprisingly, the cemetery mafia has shown little regard for the bodies in its custody. Relatives have found that they have been given the wrong person to bury. Dozens of frozen bodies were found stuffed into a refrigerated container outside the hospital at Toksovo.

16/ The same hospital, located near St. Petersburg, was seized by Izikli's gang in September 2024. Staff say that up to 20 armed men with knives, batons, pistols and other weapons have taken over the premises.

17/ According to VChK-OGPU, "they are threatening the medical staff and preventing the release of bodies from the morgue, disrupting funerals. The door of the funeral services shop is propped open by a Gazelle [van], and according to patients, bearded militants armed with pistols ... calmly come to dine in the hospital cafeteria, terrifying hospitalized pensioners and their relatives."

18/ The seizure appears to have taken place with the consent of the hospital's director. Outraged hospital employees have covertly taken photographs of the gang to inform the world of what is going on, but the authorities - doubtless bribed – have not taken any action. /end