How 27-year-old Alexander Matheev, registered in a mental hospital, was sentenced to 10 years for treason and terrorism

At the end of April 2024, Alexander Matkheev was sentenced to 10 years in a maximum security colony for high treason, justifying terrorism and participation in an organization whose activities are recognized as terrorist in Russia. The “First Department” studied the court verdict and tells how Matkheev became a victim of FSB provocation

Before his arrest, 27-year-old Alexander Matheev lived in the small village of Osa near Irkutsk with his mother and younger sister Dasha. The three of them ran away from their father in Osu in 2020. Alexander’s dad did not work, drank a lot and beat his son. Matryona Nikolaevna, Alexander’s mother, works part-time as a nurse; his younger sister Dasha goes to school.

Matkheev is registered at a psychoneurological dispensary, which is why it is difficult for him to find a job. He trained as a cook and for some time worked in his specialty in a kindergarten. He worked part-time as a loader, then as a security guard, and helped his cousin with tire fitting. For the last two years, he practically did not work, devoting all his time to his sister. In the summer of 2023, Alexander went on a shift to work at one of the Ozon warehouses in Moscow. His mother, in a conversation with First Department, said that upon returning from work in September, her son changed, began to hide his phone under his pillow, and constantly corresponded with someone on WhatsApp. One day she noticed how someone called Sasha “bro” in correspondence. Matryona Nikolaevna says that their family has always been apolitical, so Sasha would not go to fight for ideological reasons. “He’s generally trusting. If someone wrote good things about him, invited him to work, promised money, he immediately gets ready. He is very open,” says Alexandra’s mother.

At the end of January 2023, Alexander renamed his page on VKontakte - instead of “Sasha Matheev” it became known as “Samuray Army”. There he posted the flags of the Legion “Freedom of Russia” and Ukraine with the caption “Victory for Ukraine.” The signature was longer, but in the court verdict for some reason they decided not to publish the entire phrase, limiting it to the fact that at the end there was the word “Freedom.”

According to investigators, at the end of January 2023, Matkheev met a man named Kostya Abramovich on VKontakte. He told Kostya about how he wanted to fight in the Legion, showed him the flags of Ukraine and LSR and photographs of his military clothes, which he ordered on AliExpress. Kostya sent Alexander the Legion website and told him that he needed to fill out a form to join its ranks. Alexander’s mother says that this is the first time she has heard about Kostya Abramovich. The only name that Alexander mentioned in conversations with her was Igor, with whom they worked in security.

“What happened to Matheev is a classic provocation. They gained confidence in the guy, convinced him to place symbols proving the motive, order camouflage clothing and go towards Kazakhstan. At the same time, communication and its movement were controlled and recorded. Just as a teacher helps first-graders write their first letters with his hand, so the opera stood behind every word and movement of the guy,” says lawyer Evgeny Smirnov.

Two weeks before his arrest, a person with a Ukrainian phone number instead of a nickname wrote to Alexander in a telegram and asked him if Matkheev really wanted to join the “Freedom of Russia” Legion. Alexander replied that he wanted to, filled out another form with his data and even sent several videos in which he showed the flags of the USA and Ukraine. An unknown interlocutor wrote to him that a representative of the Legion would help Alexander get out of Russia and end up in Ukraine.

Soon, Matheev actually received a letter from a man who allegedly was a representative of the Legion. “Reliable”, that was his nickname, gave Alexander instructions - to take train tickets from Irkutsk to the Taiga station in the Kemerovo region, and from there to go to Almaty, where he would need to contact the Ukrainian Embassy and say that he wanted to join the ranks of the Legion. At the embassy, ​​according to Nadezhny, they will help him move to Ukraine.

Before leaving, Alexander told his mother that he was going to Ulan-Ude to the clinic to find out if it was possible to deregister from the dispensary. On November 11, 2023, Alexander Matheev left his house with a hiking backpack on his back and headed to the railway station in Irkutsk, where he bought a ticket to the Taiga. Having reached the station, Matkheev began to wait for the next train - to Kazakhstan. The train left without him. In the waiting room, Matkheev was detained by FSB officers for the Kemerovo region.

In Alexander’s backpack they found military clothing from AliExpress, a phone, a wallet, documents, weapons and a Ukrainian flag. According to investigators, the flag was brought to Matkheev by his cousin from Budapest, after learning that he opposed the annexation of Crimea. And he allegedly bought a gun in Ulan-Ude, when he lived there, for self-defense.

In fact, his dad gave Alexander the empty pistol when he found them and came to Osa in 2022. According to Matryona Nikolaevna, his father always wanted Sasha to become a military man. Previously, his father also gave him things related to military paraphernalia - for example, at the age of 11 he gave his son handcuffs. After Alexander got a pistol, he began to be interested in militaristic things - he ordered ammunition on AliExpress, put it on and walked around Osa. Sasha also ordered the Ukrainian flag from the Chinese marketplace. Alexandra’s cousin Olga actually went to Budapest, but as a tourist, but she did not give Matheev any flags.

Alexander was given an appointed lawyer, and he admitted his guilt. His mother believes that, most likely, he confessed under psychological pressure: “He signed all the confessions out of fear, and also because he was promised that he would be released if he signed everything and sent to the SVO.”

During the preliminary investigation, two witnesses testified against Matheev - D.I. Makeev. and Skopintsev M.V. They said that they came across Alexander’s page on VKontakte and saw an unfamiliar flag there, which, as it turned out, belonged to the Legion of Russian Freedom. Makeev and Skopintsev decided that Samuray Army “with its publications on the social network Vkontakte wanted to popularize the organization Legion “Russian Freedom” and its activities, as well as the victory of Ukraine in the Northern Military District.”

On January 22, 2024, Alexander Matkheev was sentenced to 10 years in a maximum security colony, with the first three to be spent in prison. In addition to imprisonment, he was fined 500 thousand rubles, had his freedom restricted for 1 year and 6 months, and was banned from publishing anything on the Internet for 2 years.

When pronouncing the sentence, the court took into account “the severity of the crimes committed by A.D. Matheev. crimes, his and his family’s property status, the possibility of him receiving income, based on his profession and work skills, which allowed him to receive a fairly high salary before his arrest.”

Matryona Nikolaevna has not seen her son since the day he left home on November 11. She is also not allowed to talk to Sasha. Once she even came to see him in Novosibirsk from Osa, but there she was told that she could not get a visit without court permission.

Address for letters: FKU SIZO-1 GUFSIN of Russia for the Novosibirsk region, Novosibirsk region, Novosibirsk, st. Karavaeva, 1, 630010, Matheev Alexander Dmitrievich, born in 1997.