A British “traitor” fighting for Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine war has been granted a Russian passport, it has been claimed. Ben Stimson, 49, from Oldham, is reportedly training African recruits to Moscow’s illegal war in the Donbas region of Ukraine.

Loyalist pro-Kremlin MP Maria Butina announced she had intervened to ensure 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 said, referring to invaded areas of Ukraine. He came to Russia in 2015 but went back to Britain due to his passport problems. He was detained in the UK and jailed on terrorism offences. “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.

“Yesterday we received a response. A positive decision was made to grant Russian citizenship to the fighter Benjamin Stimson,” she said.

Last year, Stimson was 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. They clearly don’t know who the enemy is.”

Reports last week said ex-convict and former BNP member Minnis, from Chippenham, Wiltshire, had gone missing and was feared dead.

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However, this is 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.

After his release, he returned to Russia. 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”.