John Bogna
Less of a priority in media coverage these days, the unrest in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine dating back 2014 is still happening, with some westerners continuing to use donations to join the Separatist ranks.
Videos by Rare
RELATED: Trump Says Putin Isn’t Going Into Ukraine, Backtracks, Fails Russia 101
One of those Russia sympathizers is a Texas native and self-anointed pro-Russian communist Russell Bentley.
In 2014, Bentley was employed as a lumberjack in Austin, but, by December of the same year, he traded his axe for a hammer and sickle and got involved with the fighting in Ukraine.
Armed with a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, he took part in efforts to secure Donetsk airport by transporting Ukrainian soldiers.
Like supporters today, Bentley secured money to get to Ukraine through crowdfunding websites, which, like IndieGoGo, GoFundMe and JustGiving, are typically reserved for charitable causes. For example, JustGiving recently raised over £2 million through the crowd coalition donation platform for victims of the Manchester terror attacks.
Bentley, however, used GoFundMe to raise $2,000 for an initial “fact-finding mission” to Donbass, which turned out to be a one-way trip.
According to reports, he spent half a year fighting on the front line with Russian separatist forces. Â He now produces propaganda videos, referring to himself as an “information warrior” on his self-promotion pages.
His videos are hosted on the separatist movement’s YouTube page – a community of nearly 25,000 subscribers – and his advice for other Americans to join is no short supply:
“You can do a crowd fundraiser…a GoFundMe or an Indiegogo. Say you’re coming here to help…Don’t say you’re coming here to fight.”
RELATED: A Washington Post Journalist Shares Why She Thinks Trump Voters Don’t Care About Russia
