Translated material
The vice-governor of St. Petersburg accused Prigozhin of using the corpse of a PMC fighter for a "political scandal"
The vice-governor of St. Petersburg Kirill Polyakov accused the businessman and founder of the “PMC Wagner” Evgeny Prigozhin of “inflating a political scandal” because of the situation with the burial of the PMC fighter Dmitry Menshikov, who died during the military invasion of Russia into Ukraine. Polyakov said this in an interview with Fontanka.
Dmitry Menshikov was a member of the PMC Wagner. He was a native of the Arkhangelsk region and, supposedly, was recruited in the PMC, serving a sentence in the Ryazan colony for the sale of drugs. Menshikov died during the war in Ukraine in November 2022.
In the telegram channel "Prigozhin press service" since mid-December, reports began to appear that "representatives of Menshikov" turned to the administration of the Beloostrovsky cemetery with a request to bury him on the alley of fame. Prigozhin’s press service claims that the authorities refused.
As Vice -Governor Kirill Polyakov stated in an interview with Fontanka, the authorities responded to the request of the PMC that there were no "alleys of glory" in the Beloostrovsky cemetery - just like on other graveyards in St. Petersburg. “They contacted the applicants and listened to what they wanted,” Polyakov noted. Later, officials from the administration of St. Petersburg asked the chief military commissar of the city of Sergei Kachkovsky to explain the order of the burial of the dead warfare participants who did not have the official status of a soldier.
The owner of the Wagner PMC Evgeny Prigozhin complained to the State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin that the authorities of St. Petersburg refuse him a burial on the "Alley of Glory" of the deceased mercenary. The businessman asked Volodin to organize an exit commission to resolve the issue with burial. The speaker in response emphasized that "everyone is equal at the front" and no one cannot be separated with the perpetuating of memory.
Later, Vice-Governor Kirill Polyakov announced that the "Valor alley" would appear in the cemetery and the mercenary of the PMC Dmitry Menshikov could be buried there.
The press service of the Governor of St. Petersburg after that reported that the director of the funeral service contacted the representative of the PMC in St. Petersburg involved in the organization of the funeral of the dead fighters, Dmitry Nenashev. He explained that the documents are in the morgue and "the decision on the date of burial has not yet been made by the highest leadership of the organization." There is no information about whether Dmitry Menshikov was buried at the moment.
According to the vice-governor of St. Petersburg Kirill Polyakov, he knows at least 13 fighters of the Wagner PMC, buried in St. Petersburg, they were buried in civilian cemeteries.
"[Dmitry Menshikov] For us, this is a civilian who died in the zone of a special military operation. Even a volunteer can not be recognized. If there are any other documents on recognizing the status of PMCs, then we simply do not know about them. We do not repair any obstacles. We have been buried in Pushkin and Pushkin, and in the Krasnenskoye cemetery, in Kolpino. Three - in September and in December.
According to the vice -governor, the legislation does not determine what the "alley of Glory" is, and the "alley of valor" is a neutral concept so that civilians can be buried there.
“But if we are talking about heroes, then they must be recognized by the heroes by the presidential decree. This is a relationship to the person who died, has no one. It’s just the use of the fact that they cannot stand up and say:“ Leave me alone and bury a person. ”To go very ugly. To just shake the political situation in the city, to use the guy who was not good,” Polyakov said in an interview with Fontanka.
Conflict Evgeny Prigozhin and Alexander BeglovPrigozhin’s conflict with the governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov has been going on for more than two years. The businessman repeatedly accused the governor of corruption. According to Prigozhin, Beglov created an organized criminal group that controls all the budget spheres of St. Petersburg.
Alexander Beglov, for his part, also sharply criticizes Prigozhin. For example, the governor publicly stated, not naming the name that "a certain famous businessman robs children" in the field of social nutrition (Prigozhin, the company "Concord" is engaged in food supplies for schools and social institutions).
The confrontation of Beglov and Prigozhin was aggravated after the start of Russia's military invasion of Ukraine. Then Prigozhin openly admitted that he is the creator and owner of the "PMC Wagner", which conducts military operations in Ukraine and recruits mercenaries to participate in them, including in Russian prisons. Earlier, the businessman denied his connection with PMCs.
- The Wagner PMC is a Russian unofficial military unit, whose fighters take part in ground operations in Syria, Africa and in the war with Ukraine. The organization is considered one of the most combat -ready units participating in battles in Ukrainian territories. The fighters of the group are suspected of committing numerous war crimes.
- In the spring, after several military defeats of the Russian army in Ukraine, the Wagner PMC began to recruit Russian prisoners and send them to war. The recruiting, as the media reported, is personally engaged in businessman Evgeny Prigozhin, he visited dozens of colonies in different areas of the country.