Another mass grave of Russian “200s” found in Russia: deaths were not reported to relatives

There are more than 60 graves and their number is growing.

The Russian publication “People of Baikal” discovered two large graves at the Alexander cemetery near Irkutsk. Russian soldiers are buried en masse here – contract soldiers, “Wagnerites”, mobilized.

As the newspaper writes , initially this cemetery was called the “mass grave” in PMC “Wagner”. The mother of 24-year-old Rasim Igumnov, a prisoner recruited into the PMC and liquidated on December 31, said that she was threatened with burying the deceased near Irkutsk if she herself did not take his body.

“I was told: either you take away the corpse, or we will bury it in a mass grave in Irkutsk,” says Lyudmila Gilyazova, the mother of the Wagnerian.

Today, at the cemetery near Irkutsk, there are two zones with the graves of the Russian military. On the first, “Alley of Heroes”, 13 graves. There are 53 graves on another, unnamed remote square for the “Wagnerites”, to which you need to go through the entire cemetery. On some of them are wreaths with the symbols of PMC “Wagner”. The number of burials in this almost empty cemetery has only been growing in recent months, empty graves are being dug in advance.

On the “Alley of Heroes” mostly residents of the region. Of the 13 people, only six had obituaries published, and nothing was publicly known about the deaths of the others. The media managed to find out that at least three were volunteers, two were mobilized, and one was a contract soldier. All of them were liquidated in Ukraine from December 2022 to March 2023.

Of the 53 “Wagnerites” buried in the far corner of the cemetery, only five had obituaries in social networks and regional newspapers. At least 43 of the dead were prisoners and ranged in age from 20 to 62. From open bases of courts, it is known that 17 were convicted of murder, the rest – for theft and drugs. Only 20 buried in this cemetery are from the Irkutsk region, the rest are from those located east of Buryatia and Transbaikalia.

The journalists of “People of Baikal” tried to find the relatives of the dead and contact them. It turned out that at least four “Wagnerites” were orphans, many had difficult relationships with relatives (some of them served time in colonies for crimes against loved ones – attacks, theft, murder).

Some of the relatives of the dead Russians who were found did not know about their death in the war against Ukraine. The death of some of them was later confirmed to their relatives by the Wagner PMC. Others were told that the photo of the grave with the name of their relative was a fake, and they had to wait for official announcements.

For example, the sister of Maxim Gerchikov, who was recruited into the Wagner PMC while serving a sentence for 12 thefts and car theft, told reporters who showed her a photo of her brother’s grave near Irkutsk: “He went there [to the war] and didn’t tell me anything. I learned from We haven’t talked for a long time. [In a conversation with representatives of Wagner PMC] I just hinted at the cemetery in Irkutsk – they immediately told me: “It’s a fake!” Like, don’t trust anyone until an official notice comes.”

Others contacted by the Wagner PMC said that they were notified about the death and the place of burial of their relatives. Some received compensation. For the death of a Russian, they paid 5 million rubles “coffin”, another 100 thousand rubles – for the funeral. Some were also paid the salary of the deceased. At the same time, the “coffin” and the salary of relatives were given in cash at a place that was chosen by a special curator from the Wagner PMC.

The funeral of the Russian military – scandals

The incident in Irkutsk is not the first to involve the burial of Russian military personnel far from their homes and without informing relatives of their deaths. On the eve of the scandal erupted in the Russian Tuva, in the homeland of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Relatives of the dead Russians accidentally found out about their death – after photos appeared from a cemetery in Novosibirsk, hundreds of kilometers from Tuva.

Scandals were accompanied by the burial of “Wagnerites” in the Krasnodar Territory. The local cemetery in the village of Bakinskaya today is the largest burial place for Russians liquidated in Ukraine. Another one is in the city of Goryachiy Klyuch. Here, the authorities flatly refused to allow the burial of the military, until pressure was exerted on the Wagner PMC.

(C)UNIAN 2023