On November 2, 2024, I shared the story of an American citizen, identified as Daniel Martindale, who had been “removed . . . from territory controlled by the Ukrainian armed forces.” He had allegedly been in Ukraine for two years, “transmitting coordinates of Ukrainian military” for the Russian forces. [RFE/RL, November 2, 2024.]

Martindale next appeared at a press conference in Moscow, saying that he was there voluntarily and wished to obtain Russian citizenship. Displaying his U.S. passport and a birth certificate, he told the press:

“My name is Daniel Martindale. Here is my passport. It went through the war with me, you can see in what condition it is. . . . I’ve wanted to go to Russia for a long time, I realized that this is the moment I’ve been waiting for.” [Id.]

At that time, there was insufficient information to determine whether Martindale was indeed a voluntary defector, or perhaps had been captured by Russian forces and taken to Moscow against his will. Pending proof to the contrary, I added his name to our list of political hostages, where he has remained . . . until yesterday.

Finally, after some eight months of silence, out of the blue came an announcement on Telegram from the head of the Russian-occupied sector of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, telling the world:

“By decree of our President Vladimir Putin, a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation was awarded to Daniel Martindale.” [CBS News, July 15, 2025.]

Pushilin went on to say that Martindale had “long since proven with his loyalty and actions that he is one of us. He spent more than two years in the territory under enemy [Ukrainian] control. And not only did he survive — he helped. He supported our guys, passed on important information to our special services, risked his life.” [Id.]

Well, that solves that mystery . . . though not with the best possible answers. While it’s certainly a relief to know that Martindale is not rotting in one of Putin’s Arctic penal colonies, it is sorely disappointing to learn that he is, after all, a traitor to his own country. He never deserved a place on our list of hostages, and his name has been removed.

One interesting point: The Feenstras — the Canadian family who emigrated more than a year ago to the Nizhny Novgorod region, whose journey I have been following in this blog — have spoken about their path to citizenship. In February, after 13 months of living in Russia, they were granted temporary residency status, which will remain valid for three years. The next step at that time will be permanent residency, followed by full citizenship, for a total of six years’ waiting time.

Daniel Martindale seems to have skipped the preliminaries and gone directly to the final step in a little over half a year. Even taking into account his two years in Ukraine, that’s still a fast track to citizenship.

But I guess that’s the difference in the perceived value to the Russian state of legal, hard-working immigrants as opposed to soulless traitors.

Such is the world in which we live.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/16/25