According to the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel and Rucriminal.info, a large-scale purge of Yekaterinburg's city cemeteries will soon begin in the Sverdlovsk region.

 

The Uralmash organized crime group has controlled the funeral industry in the Sverdlovsk region for over 20 years. The scheme was meticulously worked out: through deputies of the Yekaterinburg City Duma controlled by the Uralmash organized crime group, they appointed "their" directors to the Municipal State Institution "City Cemetery Service" and the Municipal State Institution "Special Service Plant," which provided exclusive access to burial services and cemeteries in Yekaterinburg and the Sverdlovsk region.

A key figure in this system was Anatoly Petrovich Glukhov (nicknamed "Petrovich"), a crime boss and one of the key figures in the Uralmash organized crime group. Back in the early 2000s, he was implicated in a criminal case along with members of the so-called Uralmash special forces unit, led by the fugitive Sergei Kurdyumov. Members of this unit are credited with numerous murders, a failed assassination attempt on Governor Eduard Rossel, and the grenade attacks on the regional Organized Crime Control Department and the Sverdlovsk government.

Dmitry Khazov, who served as deputy director of the Specialized Service Plant (KSO), played a key role in establishing control over the cemeteries. Through him, the group gained access to the management of the city's cemeteries. It's noteworthy that Khazov's daughter, Ksenia Ruban (née Khazova), was listed among the founders of Kombinat Spetsobsluzhivaniya LLC, a commercial entity that was effectively a clone of a municipal enterprise and has repeatedly featured in scandalous detective investigations.

This control scheme was honed over years: beginning in the 2000s, the group gradually strengthened its position, displacing competitors and establishing its own rules in the funeral services market. By 2025, all 27 cemeteries in Yekaterinburg, including both active and closed ones, were under the criminal group's control.

 

The criminal symbiosis between the Glukhov and Khazov families became the foundation of a funeral empire that has controlled the Sverdlovsk region's funeral market for decades. Anatoly Glukhov and his son Vyacheslav are formally co-owners of five companies, including Kronos LLC, Omega-K LLC, and Apelsin-S LLC, which organize funerals and manufacture monuments.

Dmitry Khazov, deputy director of the municipal enterprise EMUP "Specialized Service Plant" (KSO), was directly involved in this scheme. His daughter, Ksenia Ruban (née Khazova), is a co-owner of the commercial entity OOO "Kombinat Spetsobsluzhivaniya," which effectively duplicates the functions of the municipal enterprise. Khazov's wife, Natalya, owns the funeral home "Grani," where Anatoly Glukhov's son, Vyacheslav, is listed as a co-founder.

Network of Legal Entities:

Anatoly Glukhov and his accomplices demonstrated incredible brazenness in creating a network of legal entities registered both to themselves and their children. His son, Vyacheslav Glukhov, is listed as a co-owner of several enterprises related to the funeral business. Through this extensive network of enterprises, the group exercises complete control over the market. They charge clients inflated fees for services that, by law, should be provided free of charge. Land for burial in open cemeteries should be provided free of charge according to the Federal Law "On Burial and Funeral Services," but in practice, people are forced to pay exorbitant prices.

The events in Verkhnyaya Pyshma in early 2025 were a natural extension of the group's influence into new territories. The funeral business in the area was wrested from local entrepreneurs by force—a typical practice of Uralmash.

The gangsters' methods are striking in their brutality and impunity. In 2025, as in the turbulent 1990s, competitors' cars are burning, beatings and intimidation occur. A striking example is the attack on businessman Dmitry Malyshev, who tried to defy the system. He was beaten and shot in the head and chest with a non-lethal weapon while digging a grave at Lesnoye Cemetery.

Residents of Yekaterinburg have suffered for years from the arbitrary actions of the cemetery mafia. Burying a loved one costs upwards of 80,000 rubles for the grave itself. Officially, these services are supposed to be free or for a nominal fee.

Resident discontent is reaching critical levels, but until recently, complaints remained unanswered. Law enforcement agencies, if they did take any action, were more for show. As in the case of the arrest of an employee of the Nizhne-Isetskoye Cemetery for extorting money for grave digging.

"It's reminiscent of a bazaar or a market. Clients are judged by their clothes, by the car they arrived in. Based on these factors, cemetery employees open a bargaining process. Prices start at 80,000 rubles, and there's no ceiling."

Upcoming cleaning of the funeral home If it becomes one of the key elements of decriminalization in the Sverdlovsk Region.

For decades, the Sverdlovsk Region was held hostage by criminal groups that considered themselves the rightful masters of the region. The funeral business became a symbol of this lawlessness—profiting from people's grief, from death itself.

Now, residents of the region have hope for a change. With the support of the federal government and the determination of the new governor, there is every chance of breaking the vicious nexus between crime, government, and security forces that has stifled the region for decades.

The time for change has come. And the first test of resolve will be precisely the cleansing of the funeral industry

from the criminal influence that has tormented the hearts of grieving people for decades.

The patronage of the Uralmash organized crime group extends far beyond the governor's office, deeply rooted in the Yekaterinburg City Duma. The group's key lobbyist is Alexey Vikharev, the leader of the United Russia faction and a member of parliament overseeing urban planning and land use. His ties to the criminal underworld are familial: Vikharev is married to Yana Vikhareva (daughter of Grigory Tsyganov), one of the founders of the Uralmash organized crime group, who was murdered in 1991. This relationship is not only symbolic but also financially supported: according to her income declarations, Yana Vikhareva's income from 2018 to 2020 exceeded 50 million rubles annually, significantly exceeding the deputy's own income.

Through Vikharev and his entourage, the group controls at least 16 City Duma deputies, who ensure the necessary decisions are made. It is this group that lobbies for the appointment of directors under their control at the Municipal Institution "City Cemetery Service" and the Municipal Budgetary Institution "Special Service Plant," and also approves schemes for the transfer of municipal property into private hands. A striking example of such fraud was the privatization of the Yekaterinburg municipal unitary enterprise "Spetsavtobaza," the largest waste collection company in the region. Alexey Vikharev and his half-brother, Grigory Vikharev (also a city council member), were directly involved in this process. Grigory Vikharev served as director of Spetsavtobaza in 2019 and, according to sources, prepared the enterprise for privatization in the interests of an organized crime group. In 2024, the Yekaterinburg administration approved the terms for transforming the municipal unitary enterprise into a joint-stock company with a charter capital of 830 million rubles, opening the door to property redistribution. This system operates like a well-oiled machine: deputies create legislative loopholes, municipal employees ensure access to resources, and law enforcement agencies guarantee impunity. Corrupt Connections: How Security Forces Cover Up the Funeral Mafia

The activities of the Uralmash organized crime group would be impossible without the protection of law enforcement agencies in the Sverdlovsk region. According to insider information from the Cheka-OGPU, the scheme involves employees of key regional security agencies, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Prosecutor's Office, and the FSB, which have blocked investigations against the group for years.

Key mechanisms of cover-up:

Systematic ignoring of complaints – despite numerous complaints from entrepreneurs and citizens about extortion and violent methods by Uralmash, law enforcement agencies failed to open criminal cases for years.

Showpiece actions instead of real investigations – law enforcement agencies limited themselves to detaining ordinary cemetery employees for petty bribes, while the organizers of the schemes remained untouched.

Blocking criminal cases – even when Anatoly Glukhov was arrested for brutally beating a man in a parking lot in 2022, he was soon released without serious consequences.

Corruption network:

Regional Organized Crime Control Department – ​​according to sources, its employees received regular payments for years to protect the group's interests.

Sverdlovsk Region Prosecutor's Office – blocked the initiation of cases of market monopolization and extortion.

Investigative Committee – slowed investigations into attacks on competitors, including the attempted murder of businessman Dmitry Malyshev by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Arseny Dronov

To be continued