Gordon Black, American soldier in a Russian cell after a failed romance

On April 10, Gordon Black’s (34) mission to a U.S. military base in South Korea ended. He was entitled to two weeks’ holiday. But before returning to a base in Texas from Camp Humphreys, about 40 miles from Seoul, he decided to go to Russia. Via China he took a flight to Vladivostok, the most important city in eastern Russia. His Russian girlfriend lived there, whom he had met during his time in South Korea.

On May 2, after three weeks in Russia, Black was arrested. The Russian authorities announced this at the beginning of this week. Soon after his arrest, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs informed the US Embassy in Moscow.

Black is accused of stealing money from a 32-year-old woman, described by the Vladivostok District Court as “citizen T.” The victim filed a complaint against Black, after which an investigation was opened. Probably refers to ‘citizen T.’ to Aleksandra Vashchuk, Black’s girlfriend. During his visit to Vladivostok, the couple got into an argument at her home. “After he left, she noticed that money was missing,” the news agency quotes Reuters the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Vashchuk filed a complaint, after which the soldier was arrested in a hotel. The size of the amount stolen is not clear. The quoted sums in rubles vary between 100 and 2,000 euros. Black will remain locked up until July 2.

Breaking all the rules

Black’s trip to Russia violated US military regulations, the Pentagon said. What’s more, he did that twice. His stopover in China was also against the regulations. The military has opened an administrative investigation.

But why did the man go to Russia? He has been a member of the American army for sixteen years, was deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and therefore had some experience.

Other than the romance with Vashchuk, there currently appears to be no other link between Black and Russia. Authorities have already ruled out the link between politics or espionage with his arrest.

“I think she convinced him to go to Russia,” Black’s mother, Melody Jones, said in a video interview with American TV channel NBC. “He wanted to see her one last time before he went home. He met her at the bar where she worked. They have been in an on-again, off-again relationship for about a year and a half. I’ve never met her in person, but I’ve talked to her on Messenger. My motherly instinct told me there was something wrong with her.”

Vashchuk seems to have had some influence over Black. Journalists from the radio station Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by the US government, dissected the woman’s Tiktok account. It contains hundreds of videos, “often laced with vulgar language,” writes RFE/RL. In several posts, the woman describes Black as “her husband” or calls him “mine pindos”, a Russian swear word for American. In one of the videos, Vashchuk asks him to comment on relations between Russia and the US. He then says that Russia wants to defend itself and that he understands their position. He calls NATO “quite aggressive”. These positions are in line with the Kremlin. It is also striking how, after she and Black broke up, Vashchuk had him erased from her profile photo on VKontakte, the Russian Facebook, in the best Soviet style.

“Pity the poor souls at the State Department who have to get this guy out of Russia,” journalist Michael Weiss wrote on X about the Black case. The full facts of his incarceration have yet to become clear, as do his motives for traveling to Russia. What is certain is that American diplomacy could have ignored the issue like a toothache.

“It’s yet another diplomatic headache for the United States, which has warned American citizens against traveling to Russia. The US has also had its work done with other high-profile detentions,” the news agency said Reuters. The best-known cases are basketball star Brittney Griner, who recently published a book about her detention, and that of the Wall Street Journalreporter Evan Gershkovich. He is accused of espionage and has been in custody for more than a year. Ex-marine Paul Whelan has been detained in Russia since 2018, also on charges of espionage.