A U.S. Army soldier, Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, was arrested in Russia last week and is currently being held in a pretrial detention facility. Russian reports state that he will be held for two months pending an investigation. Black had flown to Vladivostok to see his girlfriend, but was arrested after she accused him of stealing from her. The Army confirmed that he had not sought clearance for international travel and it was not authorized by the Defense Department. Given the ongoing threats to the U.S. and its military, it is extremely unlikely that he would have been granted approval to travel to Russia.
The conflict between Black and his girlfriend arose when she reported him to the police, claiming that cash was missing after he stayed with her. Russian media reports quoted a spokesperson for Vladivostok courts stating that Black was arrested at a hotel in the city and ordered to be held in custody until July 2. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison. The U.S. Army is conducting an administrative investigation into the incident, as Black was on leave and in the process of returning to his home base at Fort Cavazos in Texas from South Korea, where he had been stationed at Camp Humphreys.
According to U.S. officials, Black, who is married, had met his girlfriend while in South Korea. They got into some kind of domestic dispute or altercation last fall, after which she left the country. Black enlisted in the Army in 2008, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and is an infantry soldier. He had signed out for his move back home but instead flew from South Korea to Russia for personal reasons. The Russian Interior Ministry informed the U.S. Embassy in Moscow about Black’s arrest for theft of personal property, and the embassy notified his family.
Russia currently holds a number of Americans in its jails, including corporate security executive Paul Whelan, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, musician Travis Leake, teacher Marc Fogel, and dual nationals Alsu Kurmasheva and Ksenia Khavana. The U.S. government has designated these individuals as wrongfully detained and has been working to negotiate for their release. The arrest of Black comes less than a year after American soldier Travis King sprinted into North Korea across the border and was eventually charged with desertion. The State Department strongly advises U.S. citizens not to travel to Russia given the ongoing tensions and threats to Americans in the region.
