Patriarch Kirill of Moscow
Construction of the Federal Military Memorial Cemetery began on March 15, 2008, on a 55 hectare plot off the Ostashkovskoe highway, located near the villages of Sgonniki and Borisovka in Mytishchinsky District, Moscow Oblast, west of the city of Mytishchi. The cemetery is planned to be the main national cemetery of Russia for the next 200 years, and is predicted to house 40,000 graves. On June 21, 2013, the inaugural burial took place when the remains of an unknown Red Army soldier who died in Smolensk Oblast during World War II, and the complex was officially opened to the public the following day. On August 30, 2013, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow consecrated the cornerstone of the cemetery church in honor of St. Sergius of Radonezh, which was opened in 2014. On December 27, 2013, the funeral of Mikhail Kalashnikov became the inaugural funeral held at the cemetery, conducted by Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsy and Kolomna.