How about, simply: “Where’s Russell?”

Honestly, sometimes people’s lives get so screwed up, it‘s beyond the comprehension of even the most imaginative fiction writer. Think of John le Carre, then multiply his protagonists in Smiley’s People or The Spy Who Came In From the Cold by a weirdness factor of ten, and you’ve got this guy shown below.

Yes, the very self-satisfied-looking gentleman in the photo is an American — a Texan, in fact — who somehow wound up “reinvent[ing] himself as a renegade war hero in a fake Russian republic” some ten years ago, and then this week “was allegedly abducted by Russian troops — after apparently being accused of being a CIA spy.” [Allison Quinn, Daily Beast, April 17, 2024.]

Is it any wonder that this story caught my eye in yesterday’s news? Here is a good old boy from Dallas, Texas, Russell Bentley, who was having a hard time keeping his life together with a conviction on drug charges on his record. So in 2014, he decides to become a war hero by fighting on the Russian side in the first invasion of eastern Ukraine. After a few years he declares himself a “combat veteran,” which he next uses as a qualification to work as a “journalist” for the Kremlin-controlled media, spreading propaganda about the alleged Nazi regime in Ukraine. On the basis of his six-year record in Russia, he obtains Russian citizenship in 2020. He has been living until now among Russian troops in the illegally Russian-occupied Ukrainian region of Donetsk, from which he allegedly disappeared earlier this month.

Perhaps Bentley’s story didn’t receive a great deal of publicity in 2014, but I still can’t understand how I missed it. At the time, though, it would probably have been treated as just a case of one misguided individual changing his allegiance from the U.S. to Russia — a sad story, but not yet bizarre enough to attract a whole lot of attention.

Apparently, even his recent disappearance wasn’t widely noticed until about a week later, when his wife, Lyudmila, decided to make a fuss. She claimed he had been “brutally detained” and taken hostage by Russian troops on April 8th, accused of having been embedded as a CIA mole for the past ten years.

Oh-oh! That can’t be good.

Now, I know I shouldn’t judge people on the basis of appearances, and especially when I haven’t actually met them. But looking at Russell Bentley’s picture (the real one, not the cartoon), he looks about as much like a CIA spy as someone’s pet hound dog. To my mind he appears . . . well . . . simple.

But think about it. Wouldn’t that be the perfect cover for a spy? Isn’t that the sort of person you would least suspect of being able to carry off that level of subterfuge? His wife and friends proclaim his innocence, as one would expect. But isn’t it possible that they too have been led astray all these years? But on the other hand, perhaps he has just been trying to reinvent himself yet again . . . this time as James Bond . . . and gone a little too far.

His current troubles allegedly began when he was seen photographing sites of shelling or mortar damage — photos that would be considered inappropriate by the Russian government under the laws prohibiting “insulting” of the Russian military. Even if that is indeed the only thing he is suspected of having done, he might still be facing a possible 15-year prison sentence. But if he is accused of spying for an unfriendly government — in this case, the “main enemy,” i.e., the United States — well, that’s a whole new ball game: Treason. And that’s life in prison. Or death.

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Now, as we await further word on the whereabouts and ultimate fate of Russell Bentley, I must hold off on adding him to my list of political hostages currently imprisoned in Russia. That will obviously depend on many factors — where he has been, if he has indeed been taken by Russian forces, what (if anything) he has been charged with . . . and if he is even found alive. So stay tuned as I keep eyes and ears open for developments. And hope for the best outcome for the absent, and very puzzling, Mr. Bentley.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
4/18/24