Editor’s Note: This article was published in Novaya Gazeta, a Russian newspaper. It is reprinted with

permission.



Anton Tumanov, 20, was brought home to Kozmodemyansk (Mari El Republic, Russia) in a sealed coffin.“It’s good that there was a window in it – I could at least see the face. I was told that some (dead) guys from their formation looked just like chunks of meat and there are DNA tests being conducted. The parents have not received (the bodies of their) children yet,” says Tumanov’s mother Elena Tumanova.