Russia's grave investments: Soaring cemetery expenditures amid war

Russians are investing in the expansion of cemeteries. Last year, almost six times more was spent on this purpose than three years ago. The independent Russian portal "The Moscow Times" cited this information from the official public procurement portal. Places are quickly running out, and soldiers are still dying on the front.

Last year, Russian authorities allocated over £1.9 million to expand cemeteries. This is almost double the expenditure of 2022 and nearly six times the amount spent in 2020.

Local governments have already spent £1.2 million on this purpose this year, from January to June. For comparison, in 2020, Russian regions spent £317,000 on expanding cemeteries, over £1.1 million in 2021, and £ 991,000 in 2022.

As "The Moscow Times" points out, the increase in expenditure was due to a broad-based cemetery renovation programme aimed at modernising and expanding existing infrastructure. Information from RMF24 indicates that if spending on cemetery expansion in 2018 and 2019 were included, the total amount allocated for this purpose would be £1.1 million.

As RMF24 reports, despite the growing expenditures on expanding cemeteries, official statistics do not indicate an increase in deaths related to the war in Ukraine. The Federal State Statistics Service reported that in 2022, the number of deaths fell by 22% and in 2023 by another 7.6%.

This discrepancy may indicate differences between official data and reality. The number of war casualties in Ukraine may be underestimated or underreported in official reports.

- Mortality only began to rise in 2024, and in the period from January to April, it increased by 4.5%, which translates to 27,000 deaths. These figures, however, do not match estimates of the number of soldiers killed in Ukraine - as indicated by the RMF24 portal.

According to the independent service Meduza, 120,000 Russian soldiers died during the war in Ukraine.

"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. Nevertheless, 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 £2.2 million. The most significant expenditures were allocated for expanding cemeteries in Nizhnevartovsk, where over £2 million was spent on this purpose over 2.5 years.