Volgograd Region: huntsman who detained poaching bureaucrats complains of threats

Huntsman Sergey Matveev who detained Vassily Farion, head of the Department of the Russian Federal Taxation Service for the Volgograd Region, and his two companions, who were hunting for roes without a license in the Scherbakov Game Husbandry in the Kamyshin District, now complains of threats.

"On that day, with my colleague we were driving in a UAZ van around the territory of the Scherbakov Game Husbandry, when we heard the noise of snowmobiles," Mr Matveev said. "I saw in the field-glass that people on snowmobiles were pursuing a roe. Then, two or three shots were heard."

According to his story, they immediately started threatening him. "But I paid no attention to their threats and detained them. A criminal case was initiated on the incident. However, threats don't stop. I'm forced to refuse from my evidence and receive threats of short work," the "Life.ru" quotes Matveev as saying.

"Our first detainee was Vassily Styazhkin, Director of the Kamyshin Factory of Wall Materials, together a killed roe and three hares," the website "V1.ru" quotes the press service of the GUVD for the Volgograd. "He explained that he was hunting not alone, but in a group together with Farion and Orlianskiy. Then, the car 'Toyota Land Cruiser' with the above two persons inside was detained. There was no game and no rifles in the car. The accompanying documents asserted that Messrs Orlianskiy and Farion were on a business trip."

Let us note here that Vassily Farion had already been involved in another poaching scandal. In October 2008, he was hunting with his friends hunted in Kamchatka and shot an elk and a snow ram from a helicopter. The militia then detained the top-ranked officials when they loaded bags with meat of killed animals from the helicopter into their cars. However, the case was closed.

The "Caucasian Knot" reported earlier that in October 2007 Vassily Farion was punished by the administrative court with a fine at a rate of two thousand roubles for "deliberate non-fulfilment of lawful demands of the public prosecutor."