Before YouTube took the videos down, Russell “Texas” Bentley was racking up thousands of views as he proudly cheered Russian military forces attacking Ukraine and praised President Vladimir Putin, telling viewers:
“These guys are tough. These guys are ready. And there’s plenty of ‘em. We’re gettin’ ready to bring the hammer down. These guys are going to save and liberate all the good people of Ukraine. And the bad people? BOOM! Kick their ass.”
As Rolling Stone found out, Bentley was actually embedded with Russian troops who were in the process of attacking Ukrainian cities, and his videos led a lot of people to wonder, What is the deal with this guy?
The deal is that Bentley was born and raised in Highland Park, Texas, and used to make his living selling weed to lots of clients in the Lone Star State:
Bentley wasn’t just promoting pot, he was dealing it — importing substantial quantities of weed from Texas to Minnesota. And by 1996, Bentley got tripped up by the DEA. He was arrested for felony trafficking and sentenced to federal prison. But only months before he was scheduled to be released in 1999, according to court documents, Bentley broke out of the minimum security facility where he was being held. “I didn’t have to dig a tunnel or take anybody hostage,” he recalls. “But I did escape from prison.”
Oh, and Bentley is also a big fan of former Libyan strongman Muammar Gadhafi:
“He was one of the greatest,” Bentley says fondly of the larger-than-life dictator whom the International Criminal Court accused of war crimes. Bentley says that when “Gadhafi was brutally murdered on video, it really pissed me off.”
And now Bentley is shilling for Putin. But why? His reasons are nothing less than absurd:
“This is the battle, not just of Ukraine. This is the battle between good-and-evil for the future of the world. And right now, it’s looking like the world might just have a chance because us and our friends are kicking some Nazi ass right now.”
As you can see from the video below (which is still available on Twitter), if and when Russell Bentley does return to the United States, there’s a good chance he’ll be facing a long interrogation from the Justice Department.
