New Ivan Golunov investigation on Moscow funeral industry garners more than 1.5 million views in first day online

Meduza correspondent Ivan Golunov’s most recent report on corruption in the Moscow funeral industry has been viewed in Russian more than 1.5 million times in the 24 hours since it was released. The posting of the report on Meduza’s website accounted for about 550,000 of those views.

More than 30 Russian and international media outlets published the report in conjunction with Meduza, though only viewership data on the Russian-language report has been collected so far. Meanwhile, Russian state-owned outlets have all but ignored the release of the report even though they did cover the fabricated drug distribution case against Golunov. The journalist himself said that case was likely a result of his work on this particular piece.

Golunov’s report, which sheds light on various unethical practices that have affected the ownership of the Moscow funeral industry as well as ties between that industry and high-ranking FSB officials, was submitted in draft form hours before his arrest. After Golunov was released, he collaborated with colleagues from seven other Russian-language publications to complete the report.