The “jealous” Russian ex-MMA fighter convicted of beating up his ex-girlfriend on a January 2025 FaceTime call with President Trump’s son Barron was sentenced Friday to four years in prison.
Matvei Rumiantsev, found guilty in January, was described as a “man given to jealousy” and “totally unrepentant” by a London judge, who accused him of not accepting blame over the attack.
The 23-year-old was given two years for assault and two years for perverting the court of justice after he sent the victim a letter from jail asking her to retract her claims.
“Your lack of insight and empathy was apparent at trial,” the judge said during sentencing. “You continue to try to blame the complainant for everything that has happened.”
The sentences will run consecutively, and Rumiantsev was told by the judge he may be deported from the UK due to the nature of his crimes.
Rumiantsev, who was found not guilty of rape and strangulation charges, carried out the sick assault in a drunken rage at his East London apartment after spotting an incoming call from Barron, now 20, on the woman’s phone on Jan.18, 2025, two days before Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president.
The woman, who was not identified for legal reasons, and Barron had been speaking after meeting on social media and Rumiantsev claimed she had called the younger Trump her “sweetheart.”
The victim testified that Rumiantsev grabbed her hair, choked her, called her a “s–t and w—e,” and kicked her in the stomach. During the assault, he answered the first son’s FaceTime call and turned the camera to show the woman crying on the floor.
The woman told Snaresbrook Crown Court that she feared for her life and paid tribute to the president’s son.
“He helped save my life,” she said. “That call was like a sign from God at that moment.”
Barron called London cops after witnessing the woman sobbing on video, telling a police operator: “It’s really an emergency … I’m calling from the US, uh, I just got a call from a girl, you know, she’s getting beat up.”
The younger Trump later sent over an emailed statement to police recounting what he saw.
“The individual who picked up the phone was a shirtless man with darkish hair, although I didn’t get a good look, this view lasted maybe one second and I was racing with adrenaline,” the first son’s message read.
“The camera was then flipped to the victim getting hit while crying, stating something in Russian. The guy had hung up. This whole interaction had lasted 5 to 7 seconds.”
The judge praised Barron while passing sentence on Rumiantsev, saying Trump “properly and responsibly, despite being in the United States, made sure the emergency services here were called, and he told them what he had seen.”
Rumiantsev testified that he was jealous of Trump but claimed that he also felt badly for the first son because he thought that his girlfriend was leading him on.
Defense lawyer Sasha Wass argued at trial that Barron Trump didn’t know the woman had a boyfriend and questioned how much he could have seen in a short clip of video. She added that the woman had exploited her ties to Trump to make her boyfriend envious in a “relationship full of dramas.”
With Post wires
