Ben Stimson, branded a traitor by ex-British army commander Colonel Richard Kemp last year, is fighting for Moscow in the Donbas region of Ukraine and has been rewarded by Russia
A British man dubbed a “traitor” for fighting for Vladimir Putin has been rewarded by Russia.
Ben Stimson, 49, from Oldham, is reportedly training African recruits in the Donbas region of Ukraine. He went to Russia in 2015 but returned to Britain due to passport problems. He was detained in the UK and jailed on terrorism offences, but went back to Ukraine after his release.
Loyalist pro-Kremlin MP Maria Butina announced she had intervened to ensure a Russian passport for the mercenary. “Ben has already proven his love and loyalty to Russia, his empathy for the residents of the new territories,” she said, referring to invaded areas of Ukraine.
Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as your Preferred Source in your Google search settings.
“After his release, he returned to fight in the zone of the Special Military Operation on the side of Russia,” Butina said. He faced the “threat of deportation” and she requested a Russian passport for Stimson from Putin’s interior ministry.
“A positive decision was made to grant Russian citizenship to the fighter Benjamin Stimson,” she said. Stimson was last year branded a “traitor” by ex-British army commander Colonel Richard Kemp for joining Putin’s ranks.
He and fellow British fighter for Russia, Aiden Minnis, 39, were “an absolute disgrace and are traitors who upon their return to the UK should be arrested and jailed”, he said.
Reports last week said ex-convict and former BNP member Minnis, from Chippenham, Wiltshire, had gone missing and was feared dead. However, this was not confirmed and Stimson has now suggested he is alive. “Aiden is alive and well and always was,” he posted.
Earlier Stimson had said: “Worried about my comrade Aiden Minnis. He’s not been seen for a week. I pray all is OK.” Minnis was earlier granted a Russian passport.
Butina, 37, said the leadership of main pro-Putin political party United Russia had backed the granting of citizenship to Stimson. Stimson was jailed for five years and four months at Manchester Crown Court in 2017, after returning from Russia to the UK.
He has encouraged other English speakers to fight for Putin. Stimson’s father Martin was reported in 2024 to have disowned his son for fighting for Putin.
Butina was previously jailed in the US on the espionage charge of “conspiring to work for a foreign government”.
Now a prominent MP for the United Russia party, she was arrested in the United States in July 2018 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. She pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to act as a foreign agent.
Butina was convicted of seeking to infiltrate conservative groups in the US including the National Rifle Association. She was deported to Russia in October 2019 after her sentence was slightly reduced for good behaviour.
