Liam Conner
Staff Sgt. Gordon BlackAn American soldier arrested in the Russian city of Vladivostok has pleaded guilty to robbery charges and is cooperating with investigators in the case, Russian state media reported Thursday.
“He is cooperating, he admitted [guilt]”, the RIA news agency quoted a representative of the local Interior Ministry as saying.
CBS News was unable to obtain contact information for lawyers representing black people in Russia and was unable to verify information reported by Russian state media.
Gordon Black via Facebook via Reuters
Black was detained in Vladivostok on May 2 and accused of stealing from a woman with whom he was in a relationship. A court ordered him to remain in custody until at least July 2.
Black was stationed in Korea, Pentagon officials told CBS News, and was in the process of moving duty station to Fort Cavazos, formerly known as Fort Hoodin the USA, when he went to Russia on an unofficial trip.
The soldier’s mother, Melody Jones, said he was in Russia visiting his girlfriend.
“Please don’t torture him [or] hurt him,” Jones said when asked about her message to the Russians.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters earlier this month that the U.S. was “aware of this case” but said he could not “say much about it at this time.”
The U.S. government has repeatedly warned Americans not to travel to Russia, citing “the potential for harassment and the targeting of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials” and other factors.
The Biden administration has been working to secure the release of two other Americans it believes were unjustly detained in Russia. Paulo Whelan, a former Marine, has been imprisoned since 2018 on espionage charges, which the US and his family insist are completely unfounded. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023, also on espionage charges denied by his family, the newspaper and the US government. He is still awaiting trial.
The State Department said in December that Russia had rejected a “significant” proposal for the liberation of both men.
An updated travel advice published in September, noted that the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had “limited capacity to assist U.S. citizens in Russia.”
Separately, a US citizen identified by Russian authorities as Nikum William Russell was sentenced to 10 days in prison phrase for “petty vandalism” after a court said he entered a children’s library in Moscow drunk and passed out half-naked.
Camilla Schick and Arden Farhi contributed to this report.
