Sanctions hit the dead: the demand for cremation is growing, but not everyone can cope with it

Ivan Zubov

About a week ago, information appeared in the Russian media that the famous crematorium in Voronezh was forced to suspend work - the authors of which received the Russian Project award for the best architectural project among public buildings in 2020.

This is the only crematorium in the Chernozem region located on the territory of the South-Western cemetery of the city. It was launched less than three years ago, and now a Czech-made oven has broken down in it. It is not yet possible to repair it due to sanctions restrictions - for this it is necessary to replace some components that are not produced in Russia, and the acceptance of applications for cremation has been suspended.

It was also reported that Voronezh specialists, together with representatives of the Czech company Tabo CS, are trying to repair the furnace, but it is impossible to predict the repair time.

For the same sanction reason, which caused a shortage of equipment, the construction of a crematorium in Perm worth 1.2 billion rubles was also postponed.

In total, there are 31 crematoria in the country today, most of which have stoves from Hungary, China, Germany and the Czech Republic, which are usually served by foreign specialists, with the arrival of which now there is also a big problem due to the ban on air traffic with EU countries.

However, representatives of the Russian funeral business argue that the problem is completely solvable, since the necessary parts can still be bought in Russia itself, and ovens and other infrastructure just need to be carefully looked after. The problem, according to experts, lies in the fact that this method is much cheaper than other methods of burial. Therefore, both demand and the load on crematoria are now growing strongly.

“Demand for cremation is very high. For you to understand, Moscow today is somewhere around 76% of cremations, St. Petersburg - 72%, in cities where there are crematoria - from 50% and above. Today we are seeing growth of about 5-7% annually. I think that about 90% of cremations will be in the next seven years. This will not increase the cost of cremation. It, by definition, is half the price of any funeral”, - Alexey Suloev, head of the Association of Russian Crematoria, tells reporters.

For example, three state crematoria operate in the capital at once - Mitinsky, Nikolo-Arkhangelsky and Khovansky, which also use imported equipment.

At the same time, the press service of the State Budgetary Institution “Ritual” assures that since 2016 foreign components for furnaces in the capital’s crematoria have been systematically replaced with Russian ones, the crematoria are regularly modernized and operate as usual. So, unlike Voronezh residents, Muscovites will not be left without cremation.