Russia ramps up cemetery expansions amid war and dwindling spaces
Russians are investing heavily in the expansion of cemeteries. Last year, nearly six times more money was spent on this purpose than three years ago. The independent Russian portal "The Moscow Times" reported this information, citing the official public procurement portal. As places in cemeteries quickly dwindle, soldiers continue to die on the front lines.
Last year, Russian authorities allocated over 2.4 million USD to expand cemeteries. This is nearly double the expenditure of 2022 and almost six times the amount spent in 2020.
From January to June this year, local governments have already spent 1.5 million USD on expanding cemeteries. For comparison, in 2020, Russian regions spent 416,000 USD on this purpose, over 1.4 million USD in 2021, and 1.3 million USD in 2022.
As "The Moscow Times" points out, the increase in expenditure is due to a broad-based cemetery renovation program aimed at modernizing and expanding existing infrastructure. Information from RMF24 suggests that if spending on cemetery expansion in 2018 and 2019 were included, the total amount allocated for this purpose would be 1.4 million USD.
More and more places in cemeteries
Despite the growing expenditures on expanding cemeteries, RMF24 reports that official statistics do not indicate an increase in deaths related to the war in Ukraine. The Federal State Statistics Service noted that in 2022, the number of deaths fell by 22%, and in 2023, it fell by another 7.6%.
This discrepancy may indicate differences between official data and reality. The number of war casualties in Ukraine could be underestimated or underreported in official figures.
- Mortality only began to rise in 2024, and from January to April, it increased by 4.5%, which translates to 27,000 deaths. These figures, however, do not align with estimates of the number of soldiers killed in Ukraine, indicated by the RMF24 portal.
According to the independent service Meduza, 120,000 Russian soldiers died during the war in Ukraine.
Did the war with Ukraine accelerate cemetery expansion?
"The Moscow Times" reports that the official number of COVID-19 deaths in Russia is 680,000, but unofficial estimates point to over a million victims. However, during the two years of the pandemic, Russians spent half as much money on cemetery expansion as they did during the two years of the war with Ukraine.
According to RMF24, the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug authorities spent the most on cemetery expansion during the two years of the war with Ukraine, over 2.8 million USD. The most significant expenditures were allocated for expanding cemeteries in Nizhnevartovsk, where over 2.5 million USD was spent on this purpose over 2.5 years.
