By Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW, Dec 8 (Reuters) – Three Russian soldiers were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison on Monday for torturing and killing Russell Bentley, a 63-year-old U.S. national who had volunteered to fight for Russia against Ukraine.
Bentley went missing in April last year near Russian-controlled Donetsk after his wife said he had gone out in the aftermath of shelling by Ukrainian forces. Investigators said the soldiers beat and tortured him to death, then tried to hide the crime by blowing up his body in a car.
A military court in Donetsk gave two soldiers 12-year sentences and a third 11 years. The case embarrassed Moscow, which has encouraged foreigners to fight on its side in Ukraine and the authorities portrayed the case as a tragic one-off.
Ukrainian bloggers described Bentley’s death as a warning to foreigners considering joining Russia’s war effort.
The court said Bentley – who had appeared on state TV to criticise the U.S. government – had been tortured to death in an attempt to extract what would have been a false confession that he belonged to a Ukrainian sabotage and espionage group and was responsible for the missile strike on Donetsk.
FROM TEXAS LEFTIST TO ‘PRO-PUTIN PROPAGANDIST’
Nicknamed the “Donbas Cowboy”, Bentley was featured in a 2022 Rolling Stone article about his transformation from Texas leftist to “pro-Putin propagandist”. He had obtained Russian citizenship and had done some work for the Russian state-controlled Sputnik news service.
The court heard that the soldiers had found Bentley near a military repairs facility preparing to film the aftermath of the Ukrainian attack. They had disregarded his explanation that he was a journalist, put a sack over his head, and beat and tortured him to death, it said.
A photograph of him published in some Russian media on Monday showed him sitting on a bed next to an assault rifle, with a pro-Russian flag, a souvenir from Texas and a bust of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.
Russian state TV war reporter Yevgeny Poddubny was among those who paid tribute, saying it was sad that Bentley had been killed by those he considered his own but that at least his killers had been brought to justice.
(Reporting by Andrew OsbornEditing by Ros Russell)
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