In the Samara region, a local resident, Anna Plotnikova, brought an open coffin with the body of her common-law husband Valery Maleev to the building of the regional government. So the woman decided to draw the attention of the authorities to the arbitrariness of the "ritual mafia" operating in the region. According to Anna, on February 21, employees of the funeral home, which has a monopoly in the local market of funeral services, deliberately did not allow it to bury the deceased at the Rubezhnoye cemetery in Samara.
Plotnikova said that the company demanded 50 thousand rubles for the funeral, but the woman was not ready to pay that kind of money. Anna went to "IP Vorobiev", where she was offered to organize a burial much cheaper. However, the workers hired by the company could not fulfill the order - ostensibly some “30 bandits” prevented them from digging the grave, and then the procession was completely banished from the cemetery.
The situation has already been commented by the governor of the region, Dmitry Azarov, who promised to provide Anna with material assistance and “firmly investigate” what happened. However, she refused the help of the authorities.
On February 22, Anna nevertheless buried her spouse, but not at the city cemetery, but at the village cemetery in the village of Mirny, where, according to her, Maleev grew up.
Funeral permit
On the 21st, the woman was assisted by the hired Alexei Vorobyov and the deputy of the Krasnoyarsk regional assembly of Samara, Azat Tuymasov. The latter is a member of the public organization “Blago”, which is engaged in protecting the rights of the consumer in the field of funeral services, and claims that he has long been trying to expose the “funeral mafia” operating in the region. At the same time, as reported by the Samara administration, the deputy himself had previously been involved in the funeral business for more than 10 years.
Judging by the videos made by Tuymasov on February 20-21, problems with the funeral of Valery Maleev began at the stage of receiving the site at the cemetery. In the video, an employee of the MKU “Ritual” (the organization issuing permits for burial) refuses to provide a referral to the cemetery, explaining what awaits “management permission”.
As a result, the documents were still received, and on February 21, Tuymasov, Vorobyov and his workers arrived at the cemetery to choose a place for burial and dig up the grave.
At the gates of the cemetery, Tuymasov filmed a guard who refused to let them through. A man on camera stated that allegedly no shovels could be brought into the cemetery.
“In connection with the frequent cases of theft with shovels and crowbars, they should not be allowed. We have our own diggers. You can't dig it yourself, ”the guard explained on the video.
Not allowed to dig a grave
As a result, people were still allowed into the cemetery, but on the way to the burial site, a group of unknown men suddenly joined the workers. On the record, made by the deputy Tuymasov, it is clear that there were about 15 strangers, some with closed faces. When they began to dig a hole, the men literally stood in the place of the grave to prevent work.
To Tuymasov’s question about who they are and why they came, strangers said that they were acquaintances of the deceased. The record shows that due to the intervention of men, work is progressing very slowly.
In the evening of the same day, Maleev's relatives returned to the cemetery already with his coffin. However, this time the guard remained adamant - he explained that the funeral could take place only the next day.
Having not reached the cemetery, Anna Plotnikova, together with the coffin, headed for the building of the government of the Samara Region. She told RT that she had done this because she was shocked by what had happened and did not know what to do, staying at night in the middle of the city with a coffin.
There were no problems
At the same time, the Samara City Hall believes that the version described by Tuymasov does not correspond to reality. This was announced on February 22 by the deputy head of the Samara city district Alexander Andriyanov at an urgent briefing in the city administration on the incident near the building of the regional government.
Andriyanov, in particular, stated that there were no problems with issuing permits for the funeral at MKU “Ritual”, and the organization has an entry from surveillance cameras confirming that an employee of MKU “Ritual” had issued the documents and transferred them to the trustee Alexei Plotnikova Vorobyov for 50 minutes after treatment.
Plotnikova herself was not present when issuing documents, Andriyanov said, according to whom the delay was due to inaccuracies in the power of attorney provided by Vorobyov.
“It was not stated in the power of attorney that we are talking about the burial of the late Maleev, it is written simply that Vorobyov may receive copies of certificates addressed to Plotnikova. The name of the deceased in power of attorney does not sound. Ritual employees had questions, but permission was granted, ”Andriyanov explained.
He added that, arriving at the cemetery on February 21, Tuymasov and Vorobyov twice refused to sign a plan-scheme and an act on the allocation of a site for burial.
At the same time, notes Andriyanov, the deputy and entrepreneur freely let into the cemetery, and no one interfered with the digging of the grave-diggers. The representative of the mayor’s office added that a police squad was on duty at the cemetery, who could have intervened in the event of a conflict. However, according to Andriyanov, there were no complaints about the behavior of other men to the police.
After the incident at the funeral of Valery Maleev, the prosecutor's office of the Samara region conducts an inspection. Reports about the arbitrariness of the "funeral mafia" checks and local police. In a conversation with RT, Anna Plotnikova noted that she did not write a statement to the police, but was interrogated by law enforcement officers on February 22.