Russell is believed to Bentley, an American citizen who disappeared in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine earlier this year, was tortured to death by Russian soldiers and is now due to stand trial. This was stated by the highest Russian investigative body, reports "Reuters".
Bentley died in the Russian-controlled city of Donetsk in April, Margarita Simonyan, head of Russian state media RT, wrote at the time. She specified that he was "fighting out there for our boys" and worked with the Russian news service "Sputnik".
Bentley, born in 1960, is a self-proclaimed supporter of Russian-backed forces in Ukraine.
Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that he joined pro-Russian fighters in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and later worked with "Sputnik" and received Russian citizenship.
Russia's Investigative Committee said it had concluded its investigation and charged three Russian servicemen with torturing Bentley to death in Donetsk on April 8. It is noted that two of the soldiers then loaded his body into a car which they blew up. The next day, a fourth soldier was ordered to move Bentley's remains to another location in an attempt to cover up the crime.
The committee states that the accused soldiers, whose names are listed, were made aware of the charges before the indictment was sent for approval.
They will be tried on various charges ranging from abuse of power, use of physical violence and torture and causing death by negligence to attempting to conceal a serious crime. It is not clear whether they have denied the charges or not.
Russian media suggest soldiers may have mistaken Bentley - gave an interview in 2022 to Rolling Stone magazine titled "The Strange Story of How a Die-hard Texas Leftist Became Putin's First-Line Propagandist"; - with an American spy.