His mother Lyudmila Bibikova was born in Kharkiv, Soviet Ukraine,[4] and he speaks Russian as a native speaker.
[6] During the Bosnian War, Matthews worked as a freelance foreign correspondent in Budapest, Sarajevo and Belgrade.
In 1997 he joined Newsweek Magazine's Moscow Bureau as a correspondent, covering the Second Chechen War.
[9] Matthews co-wrote the 2015 Russian television series Londongrad and played an episodic role in it.
[34] He was known for outspoken criticism of the Kremlin and his clashes with senior Russian politicians, including Vladimir Zhirinovsky.