Igor Matveev

On 12 May 2011, Major Igor Matveev, Head of the Troops and Security Service of the 107th brigade of the Russian Interior Ministry's Internal Troops (MVD RF) stationed in Vladivostok, published a video message describing the facts of corruption in the military unit. The message was based on the facts presented on 16 and 25 April 2011 to the commander of the Eastern District and the Chief of Internal Troops of the Russian Interior Ministry respectively. In particular, he reported that immigrants from China were living illegally on the territory of the unit, and servicemen were given dog food instead of canned meat. A few days after the publication of the highly publicised message, Matveev was dismissed, allegedly for violation of military discipline and prolonged absence from work.

At the same time, on 1 May 2011, P. Lukanin, a warrant officer of the RF Ministry of Internal Affairs, who was detained on 23 February 2011 by FDCN officers for selling drugs (after Lukanin testified against Matveev, the case was changed to drug possession), wrote a report to the commander of the military unit in which he claimed that he had been beaten by Matveev on 24 February. The reasons why Lukanin "remembered" the beating two months later remain unknown; the medical examination was conducted only on 25 May 2011, which made it impossible to establish the exact time of the beating. On 12 May, the collected materials were transferred by the unit's management to the 304 Military Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, located in Vladivostok. Following this, on 19 May 2011, another serviceman, Sergeant Chernakov, wrote a statement about beatings and abuse of authority by Matveev on 24 February, i.e. almost 3 months later. According to the working group of the Russian Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, the investigation and trial in Matveev's case were conducted with gross procedural violations. Among the witnesses for the prosecution were servicemen who had been tried in criminal cases of abuses exposed by Matveev, and Warrant Officer Lukanin himself was in dire need of a positive characterisation by the unit command. Judge of the Vladivostok garrison military court V.G. Frantsuz on 9 September 2011 on charges of committing two episodes of a crime under para. "a", part 3, article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Exceeding official authority, committed with the use or threat of violence"), sentenced Igor Matveev to 4 years' deprivation of liberty with forfeiture of his military rank. On 6 February 2012, the Judicial Board of the Pacific Fleet Military Court reduced the sentence to 3 years and 6 months of imprisonment in a general regime penal colony, with deprivation of the military rank of major.

The day before Igor Matveev was sentenced, on 8 September 2011, former serviceman A. Zebnitsky, who was detained for desertion in the summer of 2010 with Matveev's involvment, filed a complaint against the latter under paragraph "a" of part 3 of article 286 ("Exceeding official powers, committed with the use of violence or threat of violence") and part 3 of article 159 ("Fraud committed by a person using his official position") of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The case was also based solely on the testimony of the victim, who had written a statement against Matveev when the major's criminal case was being considered in court, a year after the "fact" of the "extortion". The victim's testimony was contradictory and did not correspond to the actual circumstances of the case, changing during the investigation. In particular, on the day of the alleged transfer of the extorted money by Zebnitsky, Matveev was in Moscow and could not physically receive it; the handcuffs allegedly placed on the victim on 9-10 June and 20-31 July 2010 were actually given to Matveev between 11 June and 5 July 2010; the mobile phone details of Matveev and Zebnitsky exclude the possibility of their meeting on the days of the money transfer. A detailed description of the contradictions in this case was given by the military prosecutor of the Pacific Fleet S.A. Kolomiets, who pointed them out to the head of the military investigation department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Pacific Fleet V.A. Grunin. Nevertheless, on 28 December 2012, the case was referred to the court, which on 10 December 2014 sentenced Matveev under part 3 of article 286, part 3 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud committed by a person using his official position") to 4 years and 5 months of imprisonment with deprivation of military rank. Released on 8 February 2016