Oleg Maltsev: the destructive cult of info-gypsy saboteurs

Oleg Maltsev  and the characters who joined him at one time made titanic efforts to make the materials incriminating them disappear from the Internet. The organization, previously known as the "Academy of Slavic Applied Sciences" (now simply  the "Academy of Applied Sciences" ), is still actively covering its tracks in  the information space , pretending to be a respectable scientific community. As Ivan Pomidorov writes in a review for the  CRiME  and  [high-profile cases] projects ,  the fresh article that formed the basis of this material hung in the public domain for no more than two days.

But what ends up on the World Wide Web actually stays there forever. You just have to know what and how to look for it.

Oleg Maltsev and his henchmen are currently involved in at least two criminal cases. The first, No. 42023164110000087, has been under investigation by the State Bureau of Investigation since September 15 last year. The more recent one was registered by the Odessa SBU in May this year. The defendants are charged with a whole "bouquet" of articles of the Criminal Code: high treason, creation of an illegal armed group, illegal handling of weapons, denial of Russian aggression, bribery of an official, bribery.

In court documents, the names and surnames of the main defendants are hidden under the pseudonyms "Person..." (and then - a serial number). But based on indirect signs (position in a particular organization, date and place of birth, etc.), it is not difficult to establish who we are talking about. They are Oleg Maltsev and his right-hand man Konstantin Slobodanyuk.

Before meeting Maltsev, Konstantin Slobodanyuk was known in Odessa as a socialite, a promising TV presenter and journalist. At that time, Oleg Maltsev was honing his skills as a swindler in Sevastopol.

Oleg Maltsev: "service" and "complicity" in Sevastopol

It was the second half of the 2000s, and the fraudulent scheme “Global Training System” (GST) was flourishing in the country, behind which stood the genius swindler from the USA Robert Fletcher.

"The Global Training System" is an explosive mixture of info-gypsyism (selling a worthless information product for a hefty sum), network marketing and a destructive cult - they actively practiced "brainwashing" and "mind control" of their victims. There were about two thousand victims, the investigation estimated the damage at $200 million.

You can read about what it looked like, for example, here. Let’s get back to our sheep.

It is not known for certain whether Oleg Maltsev worked directly with Robert Fletcher. From the court documents in the public domain, one can conclude that Oleg Maltsev was definitely familiar with the technology of the "Global System". Moreover, he created a similar, so to speak, "author’s" technology, which he called "Russian Business Style".

According to the investigation materials, Oleg Maltsev actively practiced “Russian business style” (primarily in Sevastopol) in 2008, when, under pressure from law enforcement, the “Global Training System” began to crumble, making room for other fraudulent projects.

How Oleg Maltsev “worked” is reflected in the ruling of the Sevastopol Court of Appeal (quoted with some abbreviations).

The pre-trial investigation bodies accuse Oleg Viktorovich Maltsev of the fact that during the period from March to October 2008, he, posing as the director of the research institute "Business Council", but in fact not being such, having gained the trust of Individual_6, acting intentionally, for selfish motives, under the pretext of undergoing retraining in the specialty of "lawyer-legal scholar", as well as under the pretext of undergoing communion for further service and work in "Russian Business Style", not wanting and not having a real opportunity to fulfill the obligations assumed, took possession of funds in the amount of $ 1250, 3060 hryvnia and 200 hryvnia, which he disposed of at his own discretion and for his own selfish needs.

He, in the period from 03.07.2008 to October 2008, being in the city of Sevastopol, under the fictitious pretext of training and licensing, payment for legal services, and also under the pretext of passing the communion for further service and work in "Russian Business Style" took possession of funds belonging to INDIVIDUAL_5, in the following amounts: $7000, $1000, and also 200 UAH, after which he did not fulfill the obligations he had assumed, and INDIVIDUAL_5 disposed of the funds at his own discretion and for his own selfish needs.

During the period from July to September 2008, Oleg Maltsev, under the fictitious pretext of mediation in the registration of ownership of a land plot in the city of Yalta, not wanting and not having the real ability to fulfill the obligations assumed, took possession of funds in the amount of 5,000 UAH and $18,000 belonging to Individual_3, after which he did not fulfill the obligations assumed, and Individual_3 disposed of the funds at his own discretion and for his own selfish needs, thereby causing damage to the latter on an especially large scale.

In September 2008, Oleg Viktorovich Maltsev, under the fictitious pretext of employment, not wanting and not having the real ability to fulfill the obligations he had assumed, took possession of funds in the amount of $1,000 belonging to INDIVIDUAL_7, after which he did not fulfill the obligations he had assumed regarding employment, and used the funds of INDIVIDUAL_7 at his own discretion and for his own selfish needs.

During the period from October 2008 to April 2009, Oleg Maltsev, under the fictitious pretext of training and employment, not wanting and not having the real opportunity to fulfill the obligations he had assumed, took possession of funds in the amount of $1,000 belonging to Individual_8, after which he did not fulfill the above-mentioned obligations, and disposed of the funds at his own discretion and for his own selfish needs.

It is not without reason that we have bolded "complicity" and "service". In "Russian Business Style" and in Maltsev’s "projects" that replaced it, the victim does not simply part with his money in exchange for some "knowledge", he must serve and be "complicit".

“Participation,” as Oleg Maltsev briefly explained to the court, is “the name of the procedure, the emergence of participation,” after which the “patient” received “a beautiful badge made at the factory” worth 200 UAH (at that time, it was $40).

In the pseudoscientific works of Maltsev and his minions, one can find a more specific definition of "complicity": "Everything belongs to God, we are only his creation, called to be complicit with him in his great plan. If we act in unity with God’s will, this becomes an act of co-creation <…> Complicity means the unity of the one who knows, with what is being known. This is a synergy in which interaction creates more than just the sum of its components." That is, even then, Maltsev’s "enterprise" had the characteristics of a destructive cult.

This "enterprise" was shut down by law enforcement in 2012. The pre-trial investigation lasted 11 months. But due to flagrant violations of the inquiry (as if committed intentionally) the case fell apart in court and was sent for additional investigation.

It should be noted that in the Crimean criminal case of Oleg Maltsev there are only five episodes with five victims. According to the investigation materials, the swindler’s loot was slightly more than $30 thousand. However, I dare to assume that there are many more victims of the "con man" - there is public evidence on the Internet that dozens of "novices" regularly attended Maltsev’s "seminars". That is, here we may be talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars appropriated by Maltsev under the guise of training.

Probably, the other victims were "ashamed" to contact the competent authorities. Or they do not consider themselves victims, having taken all the nonsense that Oleg Maltsev hammered into their heads as a blessed revelation.

The Maltsev case was buried by the occupation and annexation of Crimea by the aggressor country. By that time, Oleg Maltsev himself had already "dropped anchor" in Odessa.

Oleg Maltsev and the scientifically based "divorce"

As Dumskaya wrote, Oleg Maltsev appeared in Odessa a couple of months before the beginning of the occupation of Crimea. Here he created a ramified network of various public organizations, where he attracted many people who were subjected to harsh psychological processing.

“Having turned into something like zombies, the sectarians carried out the tasks of their leader - mainly blackmailing wealthy Odessans and residents of the region,” the publication said.

Those who questioned Maltsev’s authority, titles and merits were subjected to harsh harassment on social networks, the article says. They accused several people of pedophilia, publishing edited video and audio files on the Internet. In addition, the sect’s victims and their loved ones were bombarded with a barrage of threatening calls from unknown numbers. As a result, one serviceman died of a heart attack, and other victims of terror were forced to change their addresses and phone numbers.

"They were no strangers to poisoning their victims with the help of others - for example, the sectarians would post photos of killed animals on behalf of their victims on animal rights forums and leak personal data there," says a person who was unlucky enough to come into conflict with Maltsev’s "empire." "They were also interested in wealthy single women - for this purpose, they terrorized a fairly well-known beauty consultant in Odessa. The arsenal of destroying reputations and undermining a person’s moral strength was constantly improving."

The Maltsevites also actively fought against journalists - so, in order to hide the "Dumskaya" article from Google search results, a Ukrainian court decision appeared on the Internet, which upon inspection turned out to be a fake. The author of the materials, Dmitry Bakayev, was persecuted, with dozens of blogs created specifically for this purpose and videos of "psychological examinations" distributed.

The CRiME and [high-profile cases] projects, for their part, have studied legal entities among whose beneficiaries is Oleg Viktorovich Maltsev – two dozen private enterprises, LLCs and public organizations. These are mainly “academies”, “associations” and “institutes” in which Oleg Maltsev, together with his close followers, brainwashes and swindles naive neophytes out of money.

But it is hard not to notice that the "schemer" also has several law firms and security firms in his orbit. That is, he is concerned with the legal and forceful cover of his info-gypsy totalitarian sect.

In addition to the above-mentioned Konstantin Slobodanyuk, the main partners in these “enterprises” of Maltsev are two lawyers – Evgenia Tarasenko and Olga Panchenko.

Oleg Maltsev carefully hides his true biography. And he does it in a funny way.

An article dedicated to this figure, posted by Maltsev’s henchmen on Wikipedia, claims that he graduated from the Moscow Cadet Corps in 1992. But until 1993, this educational institution was the Moscow Suvorov Military School.

The Suvorov Military School, like the Cadet Corps, is a military "bursa" that only provides secondary education. Before you can find yourself a degree of "candidate of science" and "doctor of philosophy", as Oleg Viktorovich Maltsev calls himself, you need to master five years of study at some institute or university, and also complete postgraduate studies. But in the currently available biographies of Maltsev, there is no mention of a university. If you believe the article about our schemer posted on Wikipedia and elsewhere, immediately after the Suvorov Military School, Oleg Maltsev "worked in the field of consulting, business consulting, founded the consulting agency Toross."

But as we found out without much difficulty, back in 2012, Oleg Maltsev bragged to his followers that he received a higher education at... the Moscow Border Institute of the FSB of the Russian Federation. Moreover, immediately after graduating from the cadet corps. In 1992, at the age of 18, when he allegedly was engaged in consulting at a time when in the vastness of the collapsed USSR, few people knew the word "consulting".

Some researchers of Maltsev’s life are convinced that the stories about studying at the FSB Institute are a lie. At least because foreign citizens were not accepted to study there. However, it is not a fact that Oleg Maltsev was a citizen of Ukraine at that time.

Other sources claim that Oleg Maltsev received an education at the Vernadsky Tavria National University of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, majoring in psychology. In 2014, this university moved to Kyiv. In response to a request from the Dumskaya publication, they responded that it was not possible to verify whether Oleg Maltsev received a university diploma, since many documents were lost when he moved to the mainland after the occupation.

In any case, there is no information about Oleg Maltsev receiving a second legal education. But he does have a lawyer’s license issued by the Nikolaev Region Bar Council (No. 000897 dated 12/19/2014).

Actually, other achievements of Oleg Maltsev are also extremely dubious. On his websites, he calls himself "an instructor of the martial arts of Kali", "a grand master of Jeet Kune Do", "academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences" and so on and so forth. More than three dozen titles and ranks.

Like the “documents” of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences (which is a public organization and has an extremely distant relationship with scientific research activities), all other diplomas, titles and ranks that Oleg Maltsev “shines” with were issued by organizations founded by Maltsev himself.

Here is an incomplete list of them: "Institute of Memory", "Research Institute International Fate-Analytical Community", "Research Institute for the Study of World Military Traditions and Forensic Research of the Use of Weapons", "Association of Applied Sciences", "Research Institute for the Study of Human Behavior in Extreme Situations". All of them are called "research institutes" and "academies" for the sake of credibility. Oleg Maltsev earned his living for many years by giving seminars, positioning himself as a master of military and martial arts, including "non-contact combat", a professor of fencing and a psychologist.

Maltsev’s biography claims that his mentor was academician, Lieutenant General Viktor Pavlovich Svetlov. But it does not specify where and when. However, that is not the point. The point is that this mentor, Viktor Svetlov, is not mentioned anywhere except in Maltsev’s pseudoscientific works. Viktor Maltsev constantly quotes Svetlov in his treatises, but it is impossible to find verified evidence of the existence of this character. It seems that Viktor Svetlov is a figment of Oleg Maltsev’s imagination. A hoax.

My colleagues who have studied Maltsev before unanimously come to the conclusion that he is a fraud and an impostor suffering from some kind of mental disorder. Indeed, what Oleg Maltsev presents at his seminars and trainings partly resembles the delirium of a mentally ill person.

But the first impression is wrong. Oleg Viktorovich is actually a skilled manipulator. And his scientific approach helps him with this.

In January 2017, Oleg Viktorovich Maltsev defended his PhD thesis at the Odessa Mechnikov National University on the topic "Coping as a factor of personal security in the modern social space". The work received laudatory reviews in the scientific community, in particular, from the dean of the psychology department of the Kyiv Shevchenko National University, professor Ivan Danylyuk.

Coping is a stress management strategy used by an individual to cope with stress and, in general, with psychologically difficult situations of everyday life. According to eyewitnesses, Maltsev’s "organization" widely practices creating stressful situations for "novices" with subsequent imposition of the "necessary" model of exit from them. Maltsev calls this the "Nadlom" procedure.

Oleg Maltsev is the author of another PhD thesis, which he defended at Ivan Franko Zhitomir State University. It is called "Concepts of Improving Human Nature in Neo-Religious Doctrines of the 20th Century." This scientific work is interesting because the author essentially researched what he does to earn his bread and butter.

In particular, the dissertation “conducts a philosophical and religious studies analysis of the concepts of improving human nature in neo-religious doctrines of the 20th century using the example of the teachings of O. and M. Roerich, R. Hubbard and K. Castaneda.”

It is noteworthy that Oleg Maltsev in his "applied science", with the help of which he brainwashes his followers, borrowed many dogmas and practices of Scientology - a neo-religious movement founded by Ronald Hubbard. Starting from the claim to be scientific and the use of psychoanalysis in practices, ending with the procedure of "auditing" - when the confessions of followers to the mentor are recorded. And also the persecution of his opponents.

Let’s move on.

In the course of Maltsev’s scientific research, outlined in his PhD thesis, “it was discovered that the newest religious movements, unlike the religions of revelation and Eastern religious teachings, require their adherents not to change their identity, but to undergo a radical transformation of personality, which should lead to the formation of a new spiritual essence in a person, turning it into a being with new abilities and possibilities.”

And this is from Maltsev’s delirious article “What is applied science?” on the website of the “Academy of Applied Sciences”:

"We should also separately highlight such a direction as the study of the human psyche. Here we are dealing with the solution of the question: how to make an absolutely effective, multifunctional personality from an incapable person, capable of coping with diverse tasks."

Now let’s look at the PhD dissertation again.

“Similar to the mystical directions of traditional religions, the doctrines considered believe that “there is no Path without a teacher,” that the transformation of the personality of the adept is possible only within the framework of the practices of a given school in its doctrinal and practical field and is impossible without the support of more “advanced” like-minded people.”

But in his publication “What is the “Postament” system and what is it not?” (“Postament” is a “method” that our schemer teaches to his followers), posted on one of the resources under his control, Oleg Maltsev writes:

"For the life of the Pedestal, a Mentor is necessary; God alone is not enough, since, by nature, man has an amazing ability to interpret phenomena and concepts in a way that is convenient for him personally. And if there is no Mentor who is able to explain to man how all dogmas should be understood, then there is no Pedestal."

Agree: this reminds one of the plot of Stevenson’s novel "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" - in one person there lives a scientist-applicant for a doctorate in psychology and religious studies together with a swindler and the leader of a totalitarian sect. And also the leader of a sabotage group armed to the teeth.

Combat detachment of the state traitor Maltsev

As far as we can judge from fragmentary information, Oleg Maltsev began recruiting his followers into a small private military company almost immediately after arriving in Odessa. But the SBU Military Counterintelligence Department became interested in Oleg Viktorovich only after the start of a full-scale invasion.

By that time, Oleg Maltsev had put together a full-fledged sabotage unit of 23 people, which included an assault, sniper, reconnaissance group, an operational support group, and even a communications officer. Almost half of the personnel were foreigners from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus. Even after the start of a full-scale war, Maltsev’s personal sabotage and reconnaissance unit regularly went to the training ground and shooting ranges, where they practiced tactical actions in urban combat conditions.

By September of last year, counterintelligence agents had accumulated enough information on Maltsev’s intelligence and sabotage group for the State Bureau of Investigation to open criminal case No. 42023164110000087.

According to court documents, the 7th Directorate of the SBU’s Far Eastern Military District received information "indicating the involvement of defendants in criminal proceedings in the commission of crimes in the sphere of state security (information, scientific-technological and military spheres), as well as the provision of assistance to representatives of a foreign party in carrying out subversive activities against Ukraine."

According to the investigation, the organizer is Oleg Viktorovich Maltsev, born in 1975, a native of Sevastopol, operating under the pseudonym “Chief”.

SBU operatives found out that after the occupation of Crimea in 2014, Oleg Maltsev, under the guise of a forcibly displaced person, urgently moved to Odessa, where, through close associates, with the aim of legalizing themselves on the territory of Ukraine, he created controlled commercial and public organizations. Oleg Maltsev gives them the appearance of scientific research communities, which allows him to position himself as a "scientist". At the same time, Oleg Maltsev artificially uses the media and the Internet to increase his social and pseudo-scientific significance.

The criminal case specifically notes that between 2013 and 2023, Oleg Maltsev and his entourage repeatedly visited the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

While tracking Maltsev’s online activity, counterintelligence officers discovered a profile of the subject on the sanctioned social network Odnoklassniki, where he “highlights his affiliation with the Pacific Fleet unit “Dozor” (military intelligence) of the 515th separate division of reconnaissance ships of the Pacific Fleet of the Russian Navy,” and also receives and sends congratulations on the occasion of the celebration of the day of the creation of the army special forces of the GRU of the Russian Federation (currently the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation).

One of the leading links of Maltsev’s organized crime group, according to the investigation, is 40-year-old Odessa resident Slobodanyuk Konstantin Vladimirovich, who, "using cash resources, acting under the cover of pseudo-scientific public organizations, tries to obtain information in the information, scientific-technological and military spheres."

As SBU officers recorded, Konstantin Slobodanyuk bought confidential information on people of interest to Maltsev from officers of the State Border Service and the police. Among those bribed by the sect are a senior officer, a senior operative of the active measures department of the operational-search activity department of the Odessa border detachment. The list of people of interest to the leader of the sect includes 70 people, mainly entrepreneurs, Ukrainian military personnel, police officers and a judge of the Suvorov Court of Odessa.

According to the investigation, the officers received information from the official electronic database of the State Border Service of Ukraine "Gart-1" and the police "Armor" (Automated Workplace of the Operative Worker). Then, for a monthly bribe of 30 thousand hryvnia, they transferred confidential data on people to representatives of the sect. Also, the court documents record that, in addition to money, the sectarians handed over a generator to a border guard officer in 2023. At the time of the next payment, Slobodanyuk and a representative of the border service were detained.

Later, investigators discovered new interesting facts that provided grounds to charge the leaders of the sect with treason, the creation of an illegal paramilitary organization, and the glorification of Russian aggression.

For example, Konstantin Slobodanyuk and other members of Maltsev’s organization somehow arranged a visit to one of the Defense Forces training grounds in the Odessa region by employees of... the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China. This was in 2023. The communists were filming unauthorized video there, recording the location and features of the facility where Ukrainian military personnel are being trained.

With the assistance of border guards, Slobodanyuk illegally launched a drone over the state border of Ukraine with Transnistria in the area of Kuchurgan, recording the system of border outposts and fortifications. According to the investigation, to transmit this information to sabotage groups of the unrecognized Transnistrian "republic".

After this, searches were conducted in the apartments of Maltsev himself and his closest assistants, during which interesting things were discovered. For example, 64 rifles with ammunition (although, apparently, the weapons were purchased legally), military uniforms and ammunition, large sums of money.

Also found in the apartments of Maltsev and his assistants:

• a folder with 59 sheets describing intelligence and counterintelligence technologies;
• documents on money transfers from abroad, including from Russia;
• screenshots on 440 sheets on military tactical actions, the main types of combat contact in different areas, the specifics of conducting sabotage and subversive work, including mining transport and defense in confined spaces;
• notebooks describing people management;
• questionnaires and photos of 377 people;
• educational and methodological aid "Secrets of the Ukrainian secret police";
• a selection of screenshots on 47 sheets on the tactics of sabotage and subversive work and the use of methods for destroying armored vehicles with illustrations;
• a printout of the “Textbook of a Patriot of Russia”;
• illustrations of methods of hidden recording of information;
• description of the principles of encryption and decryption;
• text on fortification methods;
• training materials "What managers should use for the cause of revolution";
• Instructions “How to behave with the peacekeeping contingent of the Russian Federation troops”;
• 17-page instructions for recruiting people.

It is noteworthy that, judging by the investigative materials published in the court registry, one of the key figures – a high-ranking law enforcement officer who “emerges” in many episodes of the organized crime group’s activities – was financially and psychologically dependent on Maltsev and Slobodanyuk. That is, he was not simply recruited through bribery, he was also an adherent of Maltsev’s sect.

In particular, it was through him that Oleg Maltsev and Co. obtained “information about the connections, characteristics, and social circle of key officials of the Odessa mayor’s office, the military administration, and the head of the regional TCC and SP.”

How many other officials Oleg Maltsev brainwashed, making them his adepts, and how influential they are is an open question.