US soldier Gordon Black jailed for nearly 4 years in Russia after love story turns sour
- Gordon Black, 34, was arrested last month in Vladivostok, where he was visiting a Russian woman he dated while serving in South Korea
A US soldier was sentenced on Wednesday to nearly four years in a Russian penal colony after being found guilty by a Russian court of stealing US$113 from his girlfriend and making threats to kill her, a Reuters witness reported from the courtroom.
The judgment brings an end to a tempestuous love story that brought together – and then tore apart – a married US staff sergeant and a Russian woman after an international romance that stretched from South Korea to Russia.
Gordon Black, a 34-year-old US staff sergeant, was detained on May 2 in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok after an argument with his girlfriend, Alexandra Vashchuk, whom he had met while in South Korea.
Judge Yelena Stepankova of the Pervomaisky District Court of Vladivostok found Black guilty of stealing 10,000 roubles (US$113) from her purse and threatening to kill her.
Black, standing in a glass cage in the courtroom, was sentenced to three years and nine months in a Russian penal colony and ordered to pay back the 10,000 roubles.
He pleaded not guilty to threatening to kill her but admitted he was partially guilty of taking the money, though out of necessity. His defence lawyer will appeal the verdict.