Russell Bentley's death: Russian soldiers held accountable for killing US national

Russia's Investigative Committee named four Russian servicemen involved in the murder of American citizen Russell Bentley in April. According to investigators, the servicemen beat and tortured him. After he died, they blew his body up in a car and moved the remains.

Photo: rosguard.gov.ru by Пресс-служба Росгвардии, PDM

The Investigative Committee of Russia has identified all the persons involved in the death of American Russell Bentley and circumstances of their crimes, the press service of the department said.

In 2014, Bentley joined the DPR militia, where he received the call sign Texas. He went missing in the spring of 2024. Russell Bentley was a correspondent for Sputnik news agency.

"The Main Military Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has completed the investigation of the criminal case against servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces Vitaly Vansyatsky, Vladislav Agaltsev, Vladimir Bazhin and Andrey Iordanov," the Investigative Committee said.

According to investigators, on April 8, 2024, Vansyatsky, Agaltsev and Iordanov used physical violence and torture against Bentley. The American died. The same day, the accused blew up the car with his body, whereas a serviceman of the same unit, Vladimir Bazhin, moved Bentley's remains away from the scene.

The defendants were charged under Part 5 of Article 286 (abuse of office), Part 2 of Article 244 (desecration of the bodies of the deceased), Part 4 of Article 33 and Part 2 of Article 316 of the Criminal Code (concealment of crimes).

Russell Bentley was 63 years old. He called Donetsk "his home" and had Russian citizenship, Sputnik noted. Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Russia Today media group reported his death in mid-April without specifying the cause. Bentley filmed reports mainly for an American audience about events in Ukraine, she added.