A military court in Russian-occupied Donetsk on Monday sentenced four Russian soldiers to prison terms of up to 12 years for torturing and killing 63-year-old American Russell Bentleywho fought as a volunteer on the side of Russia in the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported, writes TASR.
Russell Bentley was a native of Texas. In 2014, he joined separatists in the Donetsk region and served in the Vostok regiment until 2017. He later collaborated with the propaganda project Sputnik, which is part of the Rossiya Segodnya/Rossija Segodňa media group. In Donetsk, he married a local woman and had Russian citizenship.
In April 2024, Bentley disappeared. An investigation found that two of the four soldiers spotted Bentley “while preparing to film the aftermath of the rocket attack.” They demanded documents from him and at the same time reported to the command of their military unit “the discovery of a saboteur”. They then put a bag over his head and put him in the car.
The court stated that Bentley – who also appeared on Russian state television, where he criticized the US government – he was tortured in order to force a false confessionthat he belongs to the Ukrainian sabotage-espionage group and is responsible for the rocket attack on Donetsk.
According to media reports, Bentley was then allegedly tortured and killed in a concentration camp on the territory of an abandoned mine in Donetskwhere they tortured those who refused to fight. They then put the body in the trunk of the car and blew up the vehicle. The next day, two of the soldiers returned to the crime scene to cover their tracks.
Bentley, also nicknamed the Donbas Cowboy, was originally a left-wing activist from Texas who gradually became a pro-Putin propagandist, according to a 2022 Rolling Stone article. Russian war reporter Yevgeny Poddubny paid tribute to Bentley, noting that it was sad that he was killed by people he considered his own.
For Moscow, which welcomes foreigners fighting on its side, this case was unpleasant. She tried to present it as a tragic isolated incident. Ukrainian bloggers called Bentley’s death a warning to foreigners considering joining the Russian war effort on the side of Russia.
