«That is, dead or alive?»
In St. Petersburg, at the modest Porohovsky cemetery, on August 29, the founder of Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was buried. In what format the farewell and funeral took place, the journalists did not have a chance to see. We were simply cheated, sent on a false trail. The employees of the cemeteries were also deceived, who waited until the evening for instructions — to dig or not to dig a grave. The policemen, who were sent early in the morning to guard other churchyards, were indignant.
The cordon around the Porohovsky cemetery was set up around the entire perimeter.
Serafimovskoye cemetery, like other correspondents, I chose not by chance. The day before, it was here that a metal detector frame was installed, and guards were posted from early morning. In addition, this cemetery is considered one of the most prestigious in the city; Heroes of Russia are buried there.
From early morning, the press gathered near the main entrance. Vigilant guards asked questions: “Who are you going to?” People with cameras were turned around. I went in the company of a pensioner who was heading to the grave of a clergyman. Some correspondents climbed through the holes in the fence, which turned out to be quite a few.
Armed policemen were walking back and forth across the territory of the cemetery. In my opinion, there were about a hundred of them.
The territory of the Serafimovsky cemetery was heavily patrolled by police
For questions about what's going on here , the security forces shrugged their shoulders: “We have no idea, we are forced people, we just follow orders.”
— They didn’t report to us, we don’t know.
This was the answer of absolutely all the policemen whom I interviewed. And apparently, they did not dissemble. In the evening, one of them issued: “Don’t understand what they arranged, on the day off they dragged me here. Some boys have been on duty since Monday. They didn’t really explain what was happening.”
Around noon, State Duma deputy from the LDPR Vasily Vlasov, son of Boris Gryzlov, Dmitry, and LDPR member Sergei Abeltsev appeared on the central alley.
“We are just walking here, there was free time, so we came,” said Vlasov. — We have an event later.
— No, behind the fence.
Note that a few days ago, deputy Vlasov proposed to rename Zolnaya Street in honor of Prigogine.< /p>
Employees of the cemetery were also reluctant to make contact with journalists. You can understand them. They have been waiting since 9 am for orders to prepare the grave. But they didn't wait. However, they could not admit that they, like us, were fools.
— What are you doing here? The funeral is a family tragedy, the relatives of the deceased do not want to see you, that's why they don't come here, — one of the cemetery workers scolded us. – We are instructed to wait until 6 pm, we will not bury later.
Because of you, we cannot even start digging graves by tomorrow. Here on Wednesday we bury two people. But you will take it off and say that this is Prigozhin’s grave, as you have already filmed here the hearse of a completely different deceased!
Due to the confusion, one hearse was indeed mistaken by colleagues for Prigozhin's. But inside was the coffin of another person — the family of the deceased told me about this.
Such a tent was erected at the Serafimovsky cemetery.
From time to time the Wagnerites came to the cemetery. Two strong guys were at the cemetery for a couple of hours: “We were not given any information, we ourselves go, we wait, we are constantly in touch with the guys. Some of our people are at the Northern Cemetery, someone went to Smolenskoye, some are still on guard somewhere.” (Evgeny Prigozhin's deputy, Valery Chekalov, was indeed buried at the Northern Cemetery. Nothing is known about the funerals of the other victims of the Embraer plane crash.)
An employee of the local church sold flowers in the cemetery shop. The woman took an active part in the discussion of Prigozhin's funeral.
“It is unlikely that they will bury him at night, I have been working here for 30 years, no one has been buried at night,” she reasoned. “Today, all day long, they talk only about him, people come up, they are interested, everything is discussed in the church. And in the morning a man came to the temple, I don’t know what organization he was from, but he immediately made it clear: today everything that happens here is misinformation. Yes, yes, he said so. Our father will confirm.
The woman thought.
— But Prigozhin was a good journalist, a professional.
— I was surprised.
— And who is he? After all, Prigozhin conveyed information to people, like he was an informer. We all talk about him like that. Oh, you yourself do not know who you are writing about.
There was even a cynologist's car at the Serafimovsky cemetery
While we were talking with visitors and workers of the cemetery, news outlets described the “farewell” to Prigogine in the St. Petersburg Manege of the Cadet Corps, which turned out to be a performance — a funeral cortege drove up to the building, from there it went to the Beloostrovskoye cemetery, but all this turned out to be “empty” movements.< /p>
The head of PMC Wagner was “buried” at the Northern cemetery, at Smolensky, the same Beloostrovsky …
After 17.00, the press service of the Concord company reported that the funeral took place in a closed format at the Porohovsky cemetery .
I don't know what reaction in private conversations the management of the Serafimovsky cemetery had to this message, but they all immediately jumped into the cars and gave gas.
The police instantly turned up. Ten minutes and they were gone.
And I went to the Porokhov cemetery, which is on the outskirts of St. Petersburg. The place is modest, next to it is a power line, there were no known people buried here before. The cemetery is half-closed, which means that they can only bury with relatives or bury urns with ashes.
By my arrival, metal detectors and fences had already been set up at the entrance. Cynologists with dogs came out of the territory. I counted ten dogs. There was also a car with the inscription «Mine clearance».
Metal detectors at the entrance to the Porokhovskoye Cemetery or under every tree.
“The entrance is closed today, come tomorrow,” the riot police stopped me. “We’re staying here for the night so no one gets in.” And there is no one from the cemetery workers anymore, they are superfluous here now.
One of the interlocutors held an anti-drone gun in his hand — protection from video shooting from quadrocopters.
– I asked.
— Well, why not? We all knew … — the man grinned slyly and hurried to turn off the conversation.
Foreign journalists hovered around the cemetery in bewilderment. They didn't really understand what it was. I removed the place of the grave of Yevgeny Prigozhin from the elevation because of the fence. It was next to a cell tower. From afar, the flag of Russia was visible, which was installed on the grave along with the banner of the Wagner PMC.
Prigozhin was buried between his father, who died in the early seventies, and his stepfather Samuil Zharky, who died in 2016. Previously, it was impossible to find out where their graves were — no public information.
On the grave of Yevgeny Prigozhin, they put in a frame an excerpt from Joseph Brodsky's poem «Still Life» with the lines «That is, dead or alive?» According to rumors, the organizer of the funeral was the mother of the founder of PMC Violetta.
Yevgeny Prigozhin's grave is where the Russian flag is.
I went towards the tram. On the way, I talked to a local woman. “My house is opposite, the windows overlook the cemetery, but I didn’t hear anyone being buried today. It was too quiet, she said. — The police only arrived in the late afternoon, when it was all over. In general, it is strange that Prigozhin was buried in such an old, unkempt cemetery. Maybe this is also a distraction?”