"The defendants have reviewed the criminal case materials," the agency said.
In September, the Russian Investigative Committee concluded its investigation into the murder of Bentley. According to the committee’s statement, investigators have identified “all individuals involved in Bentley’s death” and clarified the circumstances of the crime committed.
The case involves four accused Russian soldiers: Vitaly Vansiatsky, Vladislav Agaltsev, Vladimir Bazhin, and Andrey Iordanov. The investigation claims that on April 8 in Donetsk, Vansiatsky, Agaltsev, and Iordanov “used physical violence and torture on him, leading to his death.” Later that same day, Vansiatsky and Agaltsev reportedly detonated a TNT charge inside a VAZ-2115 vehicle containing Bentley’s body.
On April 9, Bazhin, acting under Vansiatsky’s orders, allegedly “committed an act of concealment of a particularly serious crime by relocating Bentley’s remains from the scene.”
In mid-April, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya media group, Sputnik’s parent company, reported that 64-year-old journalist Bentley, an American with Russian citizenship known by the call sign "Texas" (a nod to his Texan roots), had been killed in Donetsk. Rossiya Segodnya CEO Dmitry Kiselyov stated that Bentley's murder should be investigated, and those responsible must be punished.
Bentley joined the Donetsk People’s Republic militia in 2014. He said he went to Donbass out of admiration for the courage and resilience of the local population.
During the conflict, Bentley showed genuine compassion for those in need, raising funds and delivering humanitarian aid to elderly people, women, and children.
Bentley also frequently spoke in support of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine and was awarded honors by the Donetsk People's Republic. He viewed the Russian special operation as the beginning of the end of the Kiev regime's aggressive war against Donbass. In 2022, he stated that Russia had saved literally hundreds of thousands of lives by coming to Donbass's aid.