The Ultimate Indignity – Extortion Widespread in Russian Morgues

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 14 – Throughout their lives, Russians have to make payoffs to get into the right school, secure medical treatment, avoid false charges of driving offenses, and on many, many other occasions. But perhaps the ultimate indignity is this: morgues across the Russian Federation are refusing to release their bodies for burial unless and until relatives pay bribes. 

            Morgue workers routinely say that they won’t give out a death certificate without such payments and point out that without such papers, it is “impossible” to buy anyone. Grieving relatives says, URA news agency journalist Mikhail Bely says, that there is now “a real mafia” in the morgues (ura.news/articles/1036278450).

            Morgue officials in contrast say that the money they request is only intended to cover their costs which have risen even as state financing in this sector as in many others has been cut back.  They say that what workers in the morgues are asking for are simply fees that someone has to pay. 

            Most Russians, already in a state because of the death of someone close to them, simply pay, Bely continues, and that gives workers in the morgue the upper hand, according to consumer affairs defenders like Konstantin Tolkachev, director for the Center for the Defense of Consumer Rights.

            He points on that under Russian law, morgues are required to release bodies within 14 days of receiving them and to do so without charge. But many Russian don’t know that and so they are victimized. Many Russians are now being forced to hand over 10,000 to 30,000 rubles (160 to 500 US dollars) simply to get the necessary certificate.

            Russians should not have to pay, but as in so many areas where Putin’s optimization is leaving sectors without the necessary funds, one can at least understand some of the requests of the morgue workers.  Anton Avdeyev, a specialist on the funeral industry, says the problem is truly serious. 

            Some morgues are being forced to close, and that means people often have to go great distances to get such services.  Among the places where morgues have been shut down is Arkhangelsk Oblast.  In the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, there are now no funds to move bodies to places where doctors can examine the bodies to determine cause of death.

            One morgue official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that it wasn’t good that morgue workers were exploiting the grief of relatives to make money as so many do. This is “incorrect.”  But at the same time, he said, the people who work in morgues are people too. “They want to eat and have good clothes.” One can understand why they do what they do.