Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, a U.S. soldier detained in Russia, has pleaded guilty to theft charges and is reportedly cooperating with investigators. According to Russian state-run news outlets, Black admitted his guilt and is assisting authorities with their inquiries.
Black, 34, was arrested in Vladivostok earlier this month on suspicion of stealing money from Aleksandra Vashchuk, a Russian woman he had been in a relationship with for over a year.
Black and his Russian girlfriend appear to have gotten into a domestic dispute sometime last year, after which she returned to Russia from South Korea.
Black had been charged with stealing from Vashchuk, with whom he had a relationship while he was stationed in South Korea. Vashchuk posted numerous videos on TikTok showing the couple together in South Korea, including at least one showing Black in his U.S. Army fatigues.
Among the hundreds of often profanity-laced TikTok videos posted by Vashchuk, 31, are several in which she refers to Black as her “husband” and affectionately as “pindos,” a Russian slang word for Americans that roughly translates to “Yankee punk.”
Most of the videos of the couple together in 2022 and 2023 appear to have been shot in South Korea, where Vashchuk says on TikTok that she had lived for more than five years.
In one video, Vashchuk asks Black to comment on U.S.-Russian relations for her followers. He echoes several talking points frequently used by the Kremlin to justify the February 2022 invasion, calling NATO “pretty aggressive.”
“I understand Russia’s position, obviously. They want to defend their country,” Black says in the video before Vashchuk interjects and says former U.S. President Donald Trump “is better” than current U.S. President Joe Biden.
In more lighthearted videos, Vashchuk and Black can be seen partying together at bars and discussing the cult Russian movies Brother and Brother 2, with Black saying he fell asleep during the first film, which stars the late Russian movie star Sergei Bodrov.
During a leave period when Black, assigned to the Eighth Army at Camp Humphreys in South Korea, was supposed to be traveling to an Army base in Texas, he flew instead to Russia via China to meet Vashchuk.
The soldier’s mother, Melody Jones, expressed her concern for her son’s well-being in Russian custody. “Please do not torture him [or] hurt him,” she pleaded when asked about her message to Russian authorities.
The U.S. State Department has acknowledged Black’s detention but has offered limited details, citing privacy rules. Matthew Miller, a spokesperson for the department, confirmed that consular officers are providing appropriate assistance to Black.
The case adds to the complexity of U.S.-Russia relations, already strained by the detention of other Americans in Russia.
His detention is the latest in a string of arrests of U.S. citizens in Russia that are widely seen as a Kremlin attempt to build a reserve of bargaining chips for prisoner swaps with the West.
The Biden administration has been actively working to secure the release of Paul Whelan, a former Marine imprisoned since 2018 on espionage charges, and Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter detained in March 2023 on similar charges.
Alsu Kurmasheva. a Prague-based Russian-American journalist with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir Service. was arrested in Kazan, Russia on October 18, 2023, and charged with failure to register as a foreign agent.
Those cases have been labeled as wrongful detentions by the U.S. government, which continues to pursue their release.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby stated that the U.S. is “aware of this case” but could not provide further details at this time. The U.S. government has consistently warned its citizens against traveling to Russia due to the risk of detention and harassment by Russian authorities.
Black’s legal representation in Russia remains unclear, and no contact details for his lawyers have been made available. The theft charges against Black stem from allegations that he stole money from Vashchuk, a claim that has led to his pretrial detention until at least July 2.
This latest development has prompted concerns about the impact on ongoing efforts to secure the release of other detained Americans. While the State Department maintains its commitment to bringing Whelan and Gershkovich home, the additional detention of Black complicates these diplomatic efforts.