Brian McDonald
Moscow – A US soldier detained in Russia denied threatening a Russian woman with murder, while pleading “partly” guilty to robbery in a court in the far eastern city of Vladivostok on Monday, according to state media Russian. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black was arrested in early May in Vladivostok, where he was visiting a Russian woman he met and dated while serving in South Korea.
He is the last American citizen detained in Russia.
The 34-year-old man was detained after the woman, named by Russian media as Alexandra Vashuk, reported him to police following an argument.
Russian media on Monday quoted Black as saying he was “partly guilty” of robbery but that it was not premeditated, and that he was “not guilty” of allegedly threatening Vashuk with murder. CBS News was unable to obtain contact information for any lawyers representing black people in Russia and it is not possible to verify information reported by Russian state media.
Russia’s state media had said previouslyin mid-May that Black had pleaded guilty to robbery charges and was cooperating with investigators in the case.
Vashuk accused Black of allegedly stealing around 10,000 rubles (100 euros) from her and said he physically assaulted her.
Gordon Black via Facebook via Reuters
Black said he got into an argument after drinking. He said the pair met in October 2022 on the dating app Tinder in South Korea and dated there, before Vashuk invited him to Vladivostok.
He said he did not intend to accept the money and intended to return it, saying he accepted it because he did not have access to his money in Russia as it is held in a US bank.
Black was detained in Vladivostok on May 2 and has been in pre-trial detention since then. He was stationed in South 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.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in early May that the US was “aware of this case” but could not “say much about it at this time.”
The charges against the American soldier could carry up to five years in prison.
Black has been held in pre-trial detention since his arrest in May. Unlike the North American journalist Evan Gershkovichwho faces trial on espionage charges in Russia, the U.S. government has not declared that Black was wrongfully detained by Russian authorities.
A court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg announced on Monday that Gershkovich’s trial would begin on June 26 — behind closed doors, as is typical of Russian espionage cases. His family, his employer, the Wall Street Journal, and the Biden administration have rejected the allegations against him as baseless.
US Navy Veteran Paul Whelan He is also imprisoned in Russia, where he has remained behind bars since his arrest five years ago. He is also accused of espionage, allegations that the U.S. government and his family have repeatedly rejected as unfounded.
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