The naturalization ceremony was held at the Moscow office of Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)—the Kremlin’s proxy in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
Kremlin ally and DPR head Denis Pushilin said the passport was granted by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s decree “as the highest form of gratitude—a sign of special trust and respect.”
Martindale told reporters that Russia represents “traditional values” to him and that he hopes to eventually live in occupied Mariupol or Crimea. Russian propagandists also noted that he “thanked Russian troops” during the ceremony.
At a Moscow press conference on Nov. 2, 2024, Martindale claimed he had provided Moscow with precise coordinates of Ukrainian military sites for two years. In February 2025, The Wall Street Journal published an interview in which he said he was living in Moscow and that Russian security services were closely monitoring his movement.
According to the WSJ, Martindale views Russia as embodying “traditional values” that the United States has abandoned. In the early 2000s, he and his family visited the Russian Far East, where he saw rundown collective farms and barren plots of land. Since then, he dreamt of moving to the region, marrying a Russian woman, and living as a homestead farmer.
Martindale arrived in Russia in 2018 to teach English in Vladivostok but was deported a year later for violating labor laws, with a five-year ban on re-entry. After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine began, he rode his bicycle from Poland to Ukraine. He contacted Russian intelligence via Telegram and offered his cooperation.
Martindale then settled in Bohoyavlenka, Donetsk Oblast, which was then under Ukrainian control. He tracked the movements and positions of Ukrainian troops—including the location of a command center—and relayed the information to his Russian handlers. After a Russian offensive on the village in late 2024, occupiers transported him to Russia.