"Mommy, I'm not a terrorist"

A resident of the Irkutsk region with mental retardation was sentenced to ten years for treason.

On April 23, 2024, 26-year-old resident of the Irkutsk region Alexander Matkheev was found guilty under articles of high treason and propaganda of terrorism. Matkheev was accused of disseminating information in the VK about the “Freedom of Russia” legion* and attempting to join it. Matkheev was diagnosed with moderate mental retardation, but his illness and admission of guilt did not affect the sentence. “People of Baikal” tells the story of Alexander Matheev.

“Your son has been detained for treason”

Alexander, his mother Matryona and nine-year-old sister Dasha lived in a private house in the village of Osa, 149 kilometers from Irkutsk. At the beginning of November 2023, Alexander told his mother that several months ago he had met a Chinese man from Ulan-Ude. Matryona only remembered his last name - Lee. He suggested that Alexander go to Smolensk to earn money. Alexander couldn’t find a job in Osa, so he agreed. Matryona looked at the correspondence with Lee and let her son go - based on the tone of the messages, she decided that the man was reliable.

So that his mother would not worry, Alexander shared his plan with her. First, he will stop by Ulan-Ude to check in at the psychoneurological dispensary and the military registration and enlistment office, and then he will meet with Lee. Together they had to go to Smolensk to work.

On November 11, according to Alexander, he drove to the station in Irkutsk, and then boarded a train to Ulan-Ude - a journey of eight hours. On the evening of November 12, Matryona called Alexander to ask if Lee had met him, and heard the sound of a moving train. Having learned that her son was actually going to Kazakhstan “on personal matters,” Matryona was worried:

- It's so far away! What if you get robbed or killed there?

- I don’t communicate with strangers and bad people!

Matryona says that her son is too trusting, so she was always worried when she let him leave the house. As a result, she made Alexander promise that he would be in touch.

The next day Matryona could not reach him by phone. The son did not make contact for the next five days. She was saved from thoughts that something bad had happened to Alexander by her work as a nurse at a children's hospital and her youngest daughter Daria.

On the evening of November 17, Matryona saw a call from an unknown number from the Kemerovo region. “Maybe Sasha,” she thought and picked up the phone.

“Your son has been detained for treason,” said the unknown man.

Matryona does not remember what happened next. She says that she wanted to call someone, but she didn’t know who or what to say.

“Son, the main thing is that you are not deceived”

- Stand still! Don't spin! — his father Dmitry told seven-year-old Alexander.

Alexander did not move.

- And now - nale-evo! - the father commanded.

Alexander turned left.

Dmitry is Alexander’s father, who worked as a laborer in one of the units in Ulan-Ude: he repaired equipment and cleared snow. He did not serve in the army, but wanted his son to become a military man. According to Matryona, Dmitry drank often - “every two days.” Having drunk, he communicated with his son as in the army, and sometimes beat Alexander, Matryona, and his mother.

As a result, Alexander really became interested in military affairs. He wore khakis and military-style suits. And he told his Lawyer Vladislav Astakhov that he always liked people in uniform, and he would like to serve, but they won’t take him anywhere.

Alexander has been diagnosed with moderate mental retardation. According to ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases), people with this diagnosis can manage their own lives (cook, dress) and earn money, but often through physical labor. For example, they work as loaders or laborers.

Matryona transferred her son to a special school in the third grade - every year it became more and more difficult for him to master the program. Afterwards, Alexander entered the Buryat Republican Information and Economic College as a cook and got a job in a kindergarten by profession.

Alexander changed jobs in 2016, when Matryona decided to teach her husband a lesson so that he would “settle down a little” and quit drinking - she took the children and went to Irkutsk to live with relatives. There Alexander got a job at a private security agency. Matryona recalls that before this he asked her permission. She approved of the work, but said: “Son, the main thing is that you are not deceived and that your salary is paid.” His mother reminded him of this every time before Alexander went to work.

A year later, Matryona and her children returned to Ulan-Ude, but did not notice any changes in her husband’s behavior and took the children to their native village of Osa. There she got a job at a hospital as a nurse, and Alexander began helping his cousin at a service station (service station).

Dmitry rarely came to Osa, but one day he brought his son a New Year's gift - a drained Makarov pistol. Such a weapon can only fire blank cartridges, but in appearance it exactly replicates the combat prototype.

- I was completely shocked. What kind of gifts are these? And he [Dmitry] was sitting so important - that’s the gift I got for my son,” recalls Matryona.

In his confession, Alexander said that he bought the pistol in 2019 in Ulan-Ude.

“Is life worth that kind of money?”

Of his paternal relatives, Alexander maintained relations only with his grandmother, who lives with her daughter in the USA. They chatted on WhatsApp. Grandmother told me that she was writing a book about the Alar Buryats, and Alexander talked about his life and relationship with his father: “Trouble with Dad. He’s a terrible person, he’s reckless,” “I’m happy that you’re there in the USA, grandma, with Aunt Mila, no one beats you, compared to Dad, a fool. And there is no need to worry. Knowing that everything is fine with you” (hereinafter, Alexander’s spelling and punctuation are preserved).

In November 2022, Alexander told his grandmother about the anti-war flag: “White blue white, this flag is for the freedom of Russia. Against Putin From whom the regime. Putin is called a fascist.” The grandmother asked not to write about this on the Internet, because such a point of view could lead to arrest. Alexander replied that he was offended by everything that was happening, and added: “I don’t want war.” To which the grandmother wrote: “And no one wants to!”

At the same time, Matryona does not believe that her son was interested in politics - she remembers only two conversations with Alexander on the topic of military aggression. The first was at the beginning of 2022. Alexander reasoned: “Why did Russia attack first? If suddenly Russia was attacked, then would the world support Russia?” The second conversation took place in September 2023. Alexander then returned from a shift in Moscow and said that “people walk around there freely, they can talk about Ukraine.” Matryona “waved away his words so as not to escalate things.”

Alexander was in Moscow from June to September with a friend. He told his grandmother about this work - he complained about the dust, because of which he developed an allergy. At the same time, the indictment states that in September 2023 the man tried to leave Russia and go to Ukraine to fight as part of the “Freedom of Russia” legion. According to the prosecution, he returned home because no one met him in Moscow, and Alexander did not know how to cross the border on his own.

On September 16, 2023, returning from his shift to Osa, Alexander wrote to his grandmother that he was traveling in a carriage with military personnel: “They are coming from Ukraine. Everyone's on vacation." In the following messages, he said that the men offered him to go to war: “500,000 salary. I saw it myself. Today I showed the money on the card. SVOshk showed me.”

The grandmother replied: “Is life worth that kind of money? Don't listen to them. They could just be recruiters." Their correspondence ended like this:

- “Don’t you dare go to war. You used to be against the war.”

“Yes, that’s right, I’m generally against everything,” Alexander answered.

“Why don’t you write, Sasha?”

​​According to the indictment, on January 22, 2023, Alexander began corresponding on VK with the user Kostya Abramovich. Alexander said that he wants to join the “Freedom of Russia” legion. In response, Abramovich sent a link to the official website of the legion and offered to join it by filling out an application through a telegram bot. Alexander did this, but no one answered him. How often Alexander communicated with Abramovich and which of them began the correspondence is not stated in the indictment.

On the anniversary of the war in Ukraine - February 24, 2023 - Alexander posted on his VK page the flag and coat of arms of the “Freedom of Russia” legion with the words “Victory for Ukraine, Freedom for Russia, Ukraine This is the Will of the People, Freedom for Russia.”

According to the prosecution, on November 3, 2023, an unknown person wrote to Alexander on Telegram and asked why he applied to join the Freedom of Russia legion. Alexander replied that he wanted to fight for Ukraine. Eight days later, a user under the nickname Nadezhny wrote to him and said that he needed to get to Irkutsk, and then they would help him leave Russia and join the legion.

Alexander did just that. It was then that he told his mother about the trip with Lee to earn money, but in fact he got to Irkutsk and bought a ticket to Taiga, where Nadezhny promised to meet him. Upon arrival, Nadezhny wrote to Alexander that he now needed to buy a ticket to Kazakhstan - they would meet him there and take him to Ukraine.

On November 14, Alexander was waiting for a train at the Taiga station when FSB representatives in civilian clothes burst into the half-empty waiting room. Two men sitting not far from Alexander stood up abruptly. One of them helped the security forces take him to the interrogation room. In the video recording during the interrogation, Alexander can be heard screaming while one of the security forces pinned him to the floor. The man who was conducting the interrogation said: “Why are you whining, you stooped dog?”

How the FSB officers found Alexander is unknown. Lawyer Vladislav Astakhov notes that in the criminal case there is no information about when and how the security forces established that the accused would be at a specific station. According to one version of the defense, this was a provocation and Alexander initially corresponded with FSB officers.

Seven days after the arrest, the grandmother wrote to Alexander: “Sanya! How are you doing?” Having received no answer three days later, she wrote again: “Why don’t you write, Sasha?” The last message was sent on December 18: “Sasha!” Grandma still doesn’t know why Alexander doesn’t answer her. Her relatives are worried that the news will worsen her health, so they don’t tell her anything.

***

Alexander fully admitted his guilt, but his testimony did not affect the verdict. On April 23, 2024, the 2nd Eastern District Military Court sentenced Matkheev to ten years in prison (he must spend the first three years in prison, the remaining term in a maximum security correctional colony) and a fine of 500 thousand rubles for promoting terrorism and attempting to join to the Legion "Freedom of Russia".

Lawyer Vladislav Astakhov - he was hired by Alexandra's cousin Olga - joined the case after the court's decision; before that, the man had a lawyer by appointment. It was she who told Astakhov that, most likely, Alexander was deceived during the interrogation. FSB officers could have offered him to confess in exchange for the opportunity to travel to Ukraine in the ranks of the Russian army.

According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, a contract for military service cannot be signed if a person has been convicted of crimes related to terrorist and extremist actions, as well as treason, espionage, confidential cooperation with foreigners, encroachment on the life of a statesman or public figure, and seizure of power and armed rebellion.

The discharge summary from the psychoneurological clinic says that Alexander has slow thinking and reduced criticism. That is, a person with such a diagnosis cannot always objectively assess the situation and is easy to manipulate.

Astakhov filed an appeal to reduce his prison term, taking into account Alexander’s confession and diagnosis. He did not try to challenge the court’s decision: “Alexander’s diagnosis is the basis for mitigating the sentence. The court of first instance actually indicated that it took this into account, but still set a maximum term - this is illogical and illegal. Therefore, there is a chance to reduce the punishment.”

According to Article 275 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (high treason), a suspect can avoid responsibility if he helped the investigation. However, there is a postscript in the article - if the actions of the defendant “do not contain another corpus delicti.” But Matkheev was also convicted under Article 205.2 (propaganda of terrorism - for publishing images with the symbols of the Freedom of Russia Legion).

Now Alexander is in a pre-trial detention center, awaiting a decision on the appeal and communicates with his mother through letters. He doesn't complain about the conditions. Matryona says that even if everything is bad, he won’t admit it to her - he doesn’t want her to worry.

Alexander still thinks that he will go to war: “Mommy, you will be proud that I will serve our country, where I grew up. And he was born. Mommy remember, I'm not a terrorist. Mommy, I am a hero of our Motherland. Our Russia. Yes, I slipped up. But the Motherland gave us service. The service I've always wanted." Matryona does not understand why her son writes such letters to her, and what kind of service he is talking about.

* Military unit of Ukraine, formed from Russian volunteers and prisoners of war. On March 16, 2023, the Supreme Court of Russia recognized the legion as a terrorist organization.