Increasing Demand for Burials since Start of Putin’s Expanded War in Ukraine Sends Funeral Service Prices Skyrocketing

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Dec. 17 – The cost of funeral services in Russia has been skyrocketing, in part because of general inflation and sanctions but primarily because of increasing demand for burials since the start of Putin’s expanded war in Ukraine, sparking anger among Russians who are facing real difficulties in paying for last rites, according to an Okno Group survey.
    Over the last year alone, the cost of funerals has risen by nine percent overall and by more than 30 percent in some places; and Russians now face real difficulties in getting the defense ministry what it has committed itself to (fedstat.ru/indicator/31448 and okno.group/dayte-skidku-na-leshenku-pohoronnyy-biznes-vo-vremya-voyny/).
    Those increases, of course, come on top of prices rises in 2022 and 2023; and they are a final insult and indignity to Russians who have sacrificed their husbands, sons and fathers to fight in Putin’s war, something that will add to their anger about his government which is less prepared to honor and respect those it sends to die than the Kremlin repeatedly claims.