U.S. citizen who helped Russia from inside Ukraine granted passport by Putin

Daniel Martindale, an American citizen who helped the Kremlin to target Ukrainian troops and was then animated in eastern Ukraine by the Russian special forces, received a Russian passport in Moscow.

Russian state television released a report showing Martindale on Tuesday, with a garnish beard and dressed in a costume and a tie, smiling by receiving its new documents.

“Me, Daniel Richard Martindale, voluntarily and consciously, accepting the citizenship of the Russian Federation, swears to observe the Constitution,” he said in Russian.

“The conviction that Russia is not only my house, but also my family – I am extremely happy that it is not only in my heart, but also by law,” Martindale told television cameras, holding the Russian passport.

Martindale grew up in farms in New York and Indiana, the child of the missionaries who then moved to rural China, according to a report by Wall Street Journal. A brief trip to the border in the Far East of Russia during the family’s time in China aroused Martindale’s interest in Russia.

In 2018, Martindale, now at the beginning of the thirties, moved to Vladivostok, a Russian port city of the Pacific, where he studied Russian and taught English, before being expelled a year later to have violated the laws of labor, said the newspaper.

He moved to southern Poland, but was eager to return to Russia, the newspaper said. In 2022, Martindale entered Ukraine a few days to a few days before President Vladimir Putin commanded thousands of soldiers in Ukraine.

Martindale told journalists at a press conference last November that he had made contact with the pro-Russian forces via Telegram and sent them information on Ukrainian military facilities in the Donetsk region in the east of the country.

Reuters could not contact Martindale to ask him questions about his motivation to help Russia. A spokesperson for the United States Embassy in Moscow did not immediately respond to a request for comments.

On Tuesday, Denis Pushilin, the installation manager of Moscow was checked by the Donetsk region, controlled by Russian, presented his Russian documents to Martindale, which, according to him, were awarded by a Decree of Putin. Pushilin expressed his gratitude to Martindale, claiming that some of the information he had shared constituted the basis of Russian planning to grasp Kurakhove, a city near the key to Ukrainian Pokrovsk logistics.

Martindale “has long proven with his loyalty and actions that he is one of us.”

“For us, this (the Russian passport) is a sign of respect and a sign of gratitude for what Daniel did.”