An unprecedented situation has developed in the Rostov region, where grief and memory have been turned into a cynical business, and the funeral sphere has become a springboard for the criminal takeover of an entire region. As the VChK-OGPU Telegram channel and Rucriminal.info found out, the brothers Artyom and Setrak Dzhansyuzyan, whose machinations extend from Rostov-on-Don to the most remote corners of the region, have become the center of this "empire of death". Their activities are a monstrous symbiosis of crime, corrupt officials and law enforcement agencies, where the main tool has become not competitive advantages, but intimidation, bribery and violence.
The story of the takeover began with the Northern Cemetery of Rostov-on-Don, the largest necropolis in Europe, which came under the control of Artem Dzhansyuzyan not by chance. According to sources of the VChK-OGPU, this became a kind of "dowry" after his wedding with the granddaughter of a former cemetery authority known by the nickname "Gosha". If the old owner, despite his influence, led a relatively modest lifestyle, then the new owners demonstrate ostentatious luxury, which has become the talk of the whole region. Their car fleet includes a Mercedes-Benz G-class worth more than 35 million rubles, a Mercedes-Benz S-class, as well as numerous villas on the Black Sea coast. Particular attention is drawn to the elite residential complex "Lotus" in Rostov, where, according to sources, the brothers owned 80% of the apartments - now judges, security officials and officials live in them, covering up their criminal schemes. The mechanism for establishing a monopoly is worked out to the smallest detail and includes several key elements. Firstly, this is the systematic bribery of officials through municipal institutions - according to the same source, in 2022 alone, more than 1.7 billion rubles of budget funds were laundered through the MCU. Secondly, pressure through law enforcement agencies, where the main "battering ram" is the employee of the Economic Crimes Department Anton Ukolov, who, according to the brothers themselves, is "their man". It was Ukolov, a recently unknown employee, who became the main instrument for eliminating competitors - all cases against representatives of the clan under his leadership are successfully falling apart, while opponents of the Dzhansyuzyan business empire are subjected to harsh persecution. Thirdly, these are openly forceful methods - from arson of offices to physical elimination of intractable ones. A striking example was the fate of the deputy head of the administration, who in 2021 tried to challenge the decisions of the MCU and soon died in a staged accident - the case was quickly closed "due to lack of corpus delicti". In Dubovsky District, the situation has acquired the features of a humanitarian catastrophe - residents are forced to bury new dead on top of old graves due to the lack of free plots, and the local administration has been unable to find 6 million rubles for the creation of a new cemetery for years.
In parallel with the brothers, the Rostov Region Bureau of Forensic Medicine is implementing a large-scale project to purchase and install four modular morgues for a total of 259 million rubles. The facilities are planned to be commissioned by July 2025 in the cities of Gukovo, Zimovniki, Novoshakhtinsk and Krasny Sulin. Formally, the projects provide for the creation of modern complexes, including funeral halls, refrigeration chambers, isolated rooms for working with infected biomaterials, as well as rooms for receiving victims. However, experts unanimously call these purchases a classic "kickback" project designed to distract attention and budget funds from real problems in the funeral sphere of the region.
Having strengthened their positions in Rostov-on-Don, the Dzhansyuzyan brothers began an active expansion into the cities of the region, using a proven scheme of introducing "their" people into key positions. In Bataysk, their protégé was Valentin Kuklin, appointed head of the administration on May 6, 2025. This career "jumper", who changed 7 positions in 13 years and fled Rostov after scandals with illegal privatization of housing, according to sources, is actively lobbying for the transfer of land for private cemeteries and the purchase of equipment for funeral services at inflated prices. The market volume in Bataysk alone is estimated at 2 billion rubles annually, which explains the clan's close attention to this area. An even more indicative situation developed in Novocherkassk, where on May 19, 2025, Viktor Sinyugin, who worked for ten years as the first deputy of the mayor Yuri Lysenko, who was arrested for bribery, became acting head of the administration. Of particular concern is Sinyugin's close ties with the Dzhansyuzyan brothers - according to sources, it was this group that lobbied for his appointment to establish control over burial lands in Novocherkassk. With declared incomes ranging from 374 thousand rubles in 2019 to 6.3 million in 2022, Sinyugin managed to accumulate extraordinary property: three apartments, a house with an area of 581 square meters and 48,586 square meters of land (485 acres), which raises natural questions dews about possible schemes with municipal property. The disappearance of 112,925 square meters of land from the 2023 declaration, previously declared, looks especially suspicious. At the same time, in ten years of work in the administration, Sinyugin has not implemented a single significant project, and the housing and communal services he supervises remains in a catastrophic state: 43% of the networks are in disrepair, tariffs have increased by 90%, and contracts are regularly awarded to firms with no work experience. Resistance to the clan's expansion is rare, but indicative. Director of the Taganrog MBU Vladimir Borodovsky, who refused to cooperate with the Dzhansyuzyan brothers, has survived two assassination attempts, an arson attack on his office, and a massive discrediting campaign in the media controlled by the clan over the past three months. "They want me to become their puppet, but I'm not Gosha - I won't give in," Borodovsky said. In response, the brothers initiated a series of inspections at his institution through the deputies they controlled, and investigator Ukolov is rumored to be preparing a "criminal case according to Moscow standards."
Artem Dzhansyuzyan's quote, thrown out in 2020 at a closed meeting with funeral agents: "As long as the OBEP is with us, we are untouchable in the Rostov region!" - became not just bragging, but a call to action. Their phrase, said to a journalist: "We bury those who believed in God. And those who believe in us survive" - best characterizes the degree of cynicism with which the clan approached the organization of its business. Today, the Dzhansyuzyan brothers control not only the funeral sphere, but also public utilities, courts and the police, having turned death into Rostov currency, and fear into the main tool of control.
The recent arrest of Novocherkassk Mayor Yuri Lysenko, whose case file includes an "unidentified deputy" who lobbied for the transfer of disputed land for the construction of the Eridan school, the central episode of the bribe, dealt a new blow to the clan system.
Circumstantial evidence points to Sinyugin, whose former football club Mitos unexpectedly received municipal contracts worth 200 million rubles in 2021-2023. Pavel Vladimirovich Lebedev, director of the municipal institution for ritual activities, which oversaw relations with the Armenian diaspora, also came under attack. "Lebedev was a bridge between us and the diaspora. Now this bridge has burned down," an anonymous Telegram channel quotes one of the brothers' close associates as saying.
While the security forces are covering up the clan and officials are simulating vigorous activity, the Rostov Region remains a region where even the dead cannot find peace, and the living cannot find justice. What is needed is not targeted arrests (as in the case of Lysenko), but a total purge of all levels of power with the involvement of federal forces. Otherwise, the "cemetery syndicate" will continue to dictate its rules to both the living and the dead, turning grief into business, and memory into a bargaining chip for their criminal schemes. They have turned Rostov into a city where even death has become a business asset, and faith in justice is a luxury. And while the Department for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption remains their shadow ally, and officials pretend not to notice the Mercedes-Benz worth more than 35 million rubles at the entrances to the city hall, the Dzhansyuzyan clan continues to write rules for the living and the dead.
Yuri Prokov
Source: www.rucriminal.info
