The Real Russia. Today.

Ivan Golunov's funeral investigation follow-up is here, Trudolyubov on Russia's ‘state-family’ business, and pop culture in translation

Monday, July 1, 2019

This day in history: 157 years ago, on July 1, 1862, the Russian State Library was founded as Moscow's first free public library. Named the V. I. Lenin State Library of the USSR from 1925 until it was renamed in 1992, it's still known today as the “Leninka.” It is the largest library in Russia and one of the biggest in the world.

How businessmen from southern Russia seized control of Moscow’s funeral industry, and who helped them do it
Maxim Trudolyubov explains why Russia’s ‘state-family’ business elites are living dangerously
How ‘Chernobyl,’ the Stonewall riots, and more resonated on the RuNet in May and June”
Opinion: Petrov's white-collar bust and Navalnaya's “privilege”
News briefs: Journalists unite to share Golunov's new report, police decide they'll investigate a harassment case, a tortured teen, and academic integrity galore

Bad company ⚰️💰

In May 2016, bullets flew at Moscow’s Khovanskoye Cemetery as upwards of 400 men fought over the graveyard, resulting in three deaths. The violence meant the end of an era in the capital’s funeral business, completing the redistribution of the industry. Those in control until then hailed from the town of Khimki, just outside Moscow, and it was their efforts to maintain a foothold in the city that led to the clash at Khovanskoye. After the bloodshed, however, businessmen from the Stavropol region with connections to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) took over virtually every cemetery in Moscow. Ivan Golunov, a special correspondent in Meduza’s Investigations Department, explains the origins of the Moscow funeral industry’s new beneficiaries and looks at the figures likely responsible for their rise. To bring this story together, following Golunov's arrest in June 2019, Meduza worked with a dozen journalists at the leading Russian news publications Forbes, The Bell, Vedomosti, Novaya Gazeta, RBC, BBC Russian Service, and Fontanka.

Read Ivan Golunov's report: “How businessmen from southern Russia seized control of Moscow’s funeral industry, and who helped them do it”

From cradle to grave 👶⚰️

Russia’s funeral industry has fundamentally transformed over the past 30 years, and the changes across the country have reinforced a single trend: individuals with connections to the state have replaced men with ties to organized crime. Meduza asked International New York Times contributing opinion writer and Kennan Institute The Russia File editor-in-chief Maxim Trudolyubov to explain the problems with this unruly industry and those who control it.

Read Max Trudolyubov's essay: “Why Russia’s ‘state-family’ business elites are living dangerously”

Pop culture in translation 📺🎥

HBO / Amediatika / Capella Film / Netflix

Meduza in English publishes stories about Russia, but much of what circulates in the Russian language — big names, TV shows, political news — isn’t Russian at all. This list is the second in our new series highlighting how viral phenomena that seem fundamentally Anglophone take on new and unexpected meanings in the Russian-speaking world.

Read Meduza's new roundup: “How ‘Chernobyl,’ the Stonewall riots, and more resonated on the RuNet in May and June”

Opinions

👮 Kostalgin says Petrov got hit with the white-collar equivalent of planted drugs

Dmitry Kostalgin, a managing partner at “TaxAdvisor,” argues in an article published by RBC that the financial crime charges against “Rolf” founder Sergey Petrov (Criminal Code Article 193.1) are the white-collar equivalent of Russia’s controversial “drug charges” (Article 228). Last week, the public learned that federal agents suspect Petrov and several “Rolf” top executes of illegally withdrawing money abroad. According to Kostalgin, Article 193.1 acts as a statutory loophole that allows the police to prosecute any businesses that make foreign transactions. There’s no minimum threshold for the amount of money involved, there’s a 10-year statute of limitations on large transfers, these offenses were not included in Vladimir Putin’s recent presidential amnesty, and perpetrators cannot indemnify the damages with cash settlements. Article 193.1, Kostalgin says, is used to intimidate the business community, not fight money laundering.

👨‍👧 Kashin thinks Navalny's daughter represents Russia's modern-day ‘inherited status’

Columnist Oleg Kashin saw Daria Navalnaya’s debut in The New York Times, and he thinks her public profile and imminent matriculation at Stanford University puts her in the company of fellow elite offspring who spent their formative years in the West and then inherited their father’s prominence. In this respect, Kashin thinks Alexey Navalny’s daughter compares to the children of politicians like Vladimir Putin, Joseph Stalin, Nikolai Patrushev, Mikhail Fradkov, and Dmitry Rogozin. In an article for Republic, Kashin says “inherited status” is a fact of life in contemporary Russia, though lingering “Soviet prejudice” prevents officials from acknowledging this openly, and ironically fuels much of Alexey Navalny’s anti-corruption investigative work.

News briefs

Yours, Meduza