Ben Stimson, 49, from Oldham was jailed for terrorism offences before returning to fight for Russia in Ukraine, and has now been granted Russian citizenship by pro-Kremlin MP Maria Butina
A British “traitor” fighting for Vladimir Putin has been awarded a Russian passport. Ben Stimson, 49, from Oldham, is allegedly coaching African recruits for Moscow’s unlawful conflict in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
Devoted pro-Kremlin MP Maria Butina revealed she had stepped in to secure the passport for the mercenary. “Ben has already proven his love and loyalty to Russia, his empathy for the residents of the new territories,” she declared, referring to occupied areas of Ukraine.
He arrived in Russia in 2015 but returned to Britain due to his passport difficulties. He was arrested in the UK and imprisoned on terrorism charges.
“After his release, he returned to fight in the zone of the Special Military Operation on the side of Russia,” Butina stated. He faced the “threat of deportation” and she petitioned Putin’s interior ministry for a Russian passport for Stimson.
“Yesterday we received a response. A positive decision was made to grant Russian citizenship to the fighter Benjamin Stimson,” she announced.
Stimson was last year labelled a traitor by former British army commander Colonel Richard Kemp for enlisting with Putin’s forces. He and fellow British combatant for Russia, Aiden Minnis, 39, were “an absolute disgrace and are traitors who upon their return to the UK should be arrested and jailed.
“They clearly don’t know who the enemy is.”
Reports last week suggested ex-convict and former BNP member Minnis, from Chippenham, Wiltshire, had vanished and was feared dead. However, this has not been confirmed and Stimson has now suggested that he is alive.
“Aiden is alive and well and always was,” he posted. Earlier, Stimson had expressed concern: “Worried about my comrade Aiden Minnis. He’s not been seen for a week. I pray all is OK.”
Minnis was previously granted a Russian passport.
Butina, 37, revealed that the leadership of the main pro-Putin political party, United Russia, had supported the granting of citizenship to Stimson.
Stimson was sentenced to five years and four months in prison at Manchester Crown Court in 2017, after returning from Russia to the UK. Following his release, he returned to Russia.
He has urged other English speakers to fight for Putin.
In 2024, Stimson’s father Martin reportedly disowned his son for fighting for Putin. Butina was previously imprisoned 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 found guilty of attempting 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.