Andrei Matushkin, president of the International Association of Private Detectives, a non-profit partnership, has been arrested in St. Petersburg for two months.
According to RBC, citing sources in law enforcement agencies, he became a defendant in a criminal case on treason (Article 275 of the Criminal Code).
Currently, the detective is in one of the detention centers of the Northern capital. Within the framework of this article, he may face punishment up to life imprisonment.
According to investigators, Andrei Matushkin collected information that constitutes state secrets and transferred it abroad. He is also suspected of collaborating with foreign intelligence and facilitating its tasks in Russia. According to one of the sources, we are talking about contacts with representatives of the Baltic countries.
Private detective Mikhail Loktionov told the publication that Andrei Matushkin's association could get "anyone who pays dues, it doesn't have to be a private detective." According to him, the members of the association were citizens of the United States, Great Britain and other countries.
The International Association of Detectives was established in 2009, mainly it was engaged in checking marital fidelity, searching for stolen cars and missing people.
As reported by EADaily, earlier the director of the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of the Russian Federation Sergey Naryshkin spoke about the attempts of a number of Western countries to provoke disintegration processes within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).