A special passenger. Russian train manager gets demoted after baggage dispute with a soldier carrying gifts for fighters in Ukraine

“Where does RZD find managers like this?”—this was the opening line of a now-deleted post on the pro-war Telegram channel “Lavrentiy Pavlovich”, published on 31 October. The author wrote that a “friend—a high-ranking officer from the ‘North’ group”—travelling “to the special military operation zone” on train 029 from St Petersburg to Belgorod, had “just” contacted them about a clash with the train manager.

“I got a compartment on the upper level with no overhead storage. I had a box of gifts for servicemen in the special military operation, and as it wouldn’t fit in the compartment, I put it in the vestibule so it wouldn’t get in anyone’s way,” the Telegram channel quoted the serviceman.

Shortly afterwards, the train manager, Matvey Shumeiko—the Telegram channel published a photo of his business card—entered the compartment. The serviceman, who was clearly annoyed, described the employee as “a very young man” who showed “considerable displeasure towards those involved in the special military operation and their gifts”.

“This man’s never even served in the army, is not married,” the post relayed the passenger’s outrage. “How can they put people like him in management roles? Especially in these times, when every manager should be a patriot of the State!!!”

“No special treatment for the ‘special military operation’?” A dispute over a box

A video of the confrontation between the train manager and the serviceman was filmed by a fellow passenger and shared alongside the post on “Lavrentiy Pavlovich” channel. The video shows only the train manager, Matvey Shumeiko, standing in the doorway of a darkened compartment—the voices of the serviceman and a fellow passenger intervening on his behalf can be heard off-camera.

“Here’s a box—I’m taking gifts for servicemen to the ‘special military operation’,” the man says. “What’s the problem with this box getting there?”

Shumeyko replies that, according to the rules, passengers can carry baggage free of charge only if its dimensions—the sum of its length, width and height—do not exceed 180 cm. The box itself is not shown in the video, but it’s clearly not only large but also very heavy—at one point, the serviceman’s compartment neighbour says that it took three people to carry it onto the train.

“This box is from [St Petersburg Governor] Alexander Dmitrievich Beglov,” the passenger emphasises the importance of the cargo.

“You understand we don’t have special arrangements for parcels from Beglov or to servicemen, do you?” Shumeyko replies.

“No special treatment for the ‘special military operation’?” the serviceman asks.

“No. Unfortunately not,” says the train manager.

Shumeyko explains to the passenger that he cannot violate his official duties and “allow this box to stand by the toilet under the cameras.”

“Fine, suggest somewhere else and I’ll put it there,” the “high-ranking officer” seems to agree. But when the RZD employee says that he can pay for space in the luggage carriage and move the cargo there, the serviceman first asks for Shumeyko’s details and then adds that he had “never had any problems with train managers before”, who were “absolutely understanding” about gifts for soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

“I’ll repeat: you are currently travelling as a passenger without paying for baggage. You are carrying excess baggage,” Shumeyko calmly explains.

“He’s a special passenger, young man!” interjects the serviceman’s fellow traveller, who is clearly the person filming the interaction.

“We don’t, unfortunately, have a special category of passengers,” Shumeyko replies.

“But we do. We have special passengers in this country, and you know it. You should be accommodating,” the woman persists.

“If I weren’t at work, I might be able to help. But I’m afraid I’m on duty.”

“So there are exceptions.”

“No, unfortunately not. There are no exceptions now,” Shumeyko repeats.

“We have them in this country. I don’t know where you live…” the passenger insists.

In the end, the train manager, still not raising his voice and apologising, says that he will have to call the police if the serviceman does not remove the box. “Only pushchairs and wheelchairs can be carried free of charge,” he adds.

“Well, consider it a wheelchair then,” the passenger seizes on an opportunity to get a concession for the serviceman—who has almost stopped participating in the argument.

“It’s not a wheelchair.”

“How do you know?”

“The passenger just told me,” Shumeyko replies calmly.

“Fine, he’ll tell you now that it’s a wheelchair—could you let this box stay overnight in that case?”

The train manager refuses and explains that he could be dismissed for violating instructions. Then the serviceman asks the RZD employee to help him move the box, but Shumeyko replies that he is not allowed to touch passengers’ luggage.

The fellow passenger decides to blame the train guard, who initially allowed the servicemen with such cargo onto the train: “She allowed this box onto the train! So let her carry it now! Or carry it yourself! It’s your mistake! Your oversight!”

“You’re changing your tune now,” the train manager begins to lose his friendly tone.

“Why have I changed my tune?”

“What do you mean by ‘changed your tune’?” the serviceman interjects.

Despite Shumeyko saying several times that the rules prohibit him from touching the box, the man repeats that he will only move it if he is helped. “Do you even live in this country? Or are you… I can’t understand?” the serviceman wonders.

“What are your suggestions!” the officer’s fellow passenger asks again.

“My suggestion is that the passenger themselves removes this box from there,” the train manager retorts.

“I won’t lift it!” the serviceman says.

“He’s on his own!” the passenger exclaims.

“Young man, I repeat: we cannot touch your luggage!”

“Bloody hell! It’s like a dead end!” exclaims the box’s owner.

The “high-ranking officer’s” neighbour starts laughing: “No, this has to be posted! This definitely has to be posted.”

“Special military operation people always feel they are above the rules.” Punishment

A few days later, a new post on the same Telegram channel revealed how the argument between Shumeyko and the unnamed “high-ranking officer” concluded.

On November 3, the author reported that “after about 15 minutes of arguing, the train manager retreated and did not reappear.” Apparently, the serviceman still did not have to pay for extra baggage, and he reached his destination in the vestibule. Moreover, as the post claims, the RZD management “offered an official apology to our serviceman for the conflict with the train manager.” And Shumeyko was punished.

“The RZD management offered an official apology to the officer, announcing that the train manager would be disciplined, and also reported that they would develop instructions for their employees on assisting participants in the ‘special military operation’. They also asked to remove the material from the Telegram channel,” the author says.

Citing an unnamed “source”, he reports that the train manager “received a summons to the military registration and enlistment office and will be sent to the ‘special military operation’ zone.”

The information that the train manager had to pay the price for a conflict with a passenger was confirmed to Mediazona by a colleague of Matvey Shumeyko, who requested anonymity. According to her, after the serviceman, Shumeyko was removed from his position as train manager—he now works as a train attendant. Moreover, the management of the Federal Passenger Company, the Russian Railways-owned company, even tried to dismiss him.

“They met him, gave him a very harsh dressing-down for, in fact, directly following his job description,” she says, puzzled. “I know that they shouted at him, and the head of the passenger service department in the north-western branch of FPC issued an order to dismiss Shumeyko. But the head of the train crew depot—that’s the unit subordinate to the branch—ignored the order. He was like: ‘We’re already short-staffed. Go away with your orders’. ”

Our source says that the St Petersburg to Moscow line “has a thousand carriages, and there are practically no people working there”, so the local management stood up for the employee. “They’re about 40% understaffed, so they care about keeping people in their jobs,” she says.

In addition, there had been no previous complaints about Shumeyko or his crew, and he is a “very good train manager”, his colleague says.

“He really tries very hard,” she insists. “And he put together his train crew, one might say, bit by bit.”

The head of the passenger service department of the north-western branch of FPC, Rinat Ayupov—who, according to Matvey Shumeyko’s colleague, was the one who tried to dismiss the young train manager—did not respond to Mediazona reporter’s message and blocked her account on Telegram.

Matvey Shumeyko is indeed very young, only 21 years old. Judging by his social media, he has long been passionate about railways: Shumeyko graduated from a railway transport technical college and is now studying part-time at the University of Railway Engineers in St Petersburg. He also declined to comment on the incident with the serviceman or answer the question of whether he had been served with a summons to the military draft office, as the pro-war Telegram channel claimed.

“Most likely, it was just a scare tactic,” Shumeyko’s colleague speculates about the information about the summons. “FPC has an official deferral from military service for men.”

“Dealing with military personnel is always a tough matter,” the RZD employee notes.

“Rules are the same for everyone but ‘special military operation’ people always feel they are above the rules,” she smiles. “I was recently in a train compartment with a soldier who boasted about demanding a free ticket to the Mariinsky Theatre [in St Petersburg], if I’m not mistaken, because, as he put it, ‘he is fighting for them’. And they gave in!”

Editor: Anna Pavlova