Nicknamed the “ Donbas Cowboy”, Bentley was featured in a 2022 Rolling Stone article about his transformation from Texas leftist to “pro-Putin propagandist”, and, prior to the 2022 invasion, in Shaun Walker’s 2015 Guardian article about anti-Ukrainian rebels in the Donbas . He had obtained Russian citizenship and had done some work for the Russian state-controlled Sputnik news service. The court heard that the soldiers found Bentley near a military repairs facility preparing to film the aftermath of the Ukrainian attack. They disregarded his explanation that he was a journalist, put a sack over his head, and beat and tortured him to death, it sai
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