By Nicholas McEntyre | New York Post
A US soldier was sentenced to three years and nine months in a Russian penal colony for stealing $113 from his girlfriend and threatening to kill her in a turbulent affair that “lured” him to the country.
Gordon Black, a 34-year-old US staff sergeant, who has been detained in the far east of Russia since May 2, learned his fate on Wednesday while he stood inside a glass cage in the District Court of Vladivostok.
Black pleaded not guilty to the charges of threatening to kill his girlfriend Alexandra Vashchuk but had admitted he was “partially” guilty of stealing from her.
Prosecutors asked Judge Yelena Stepankova to sentence Black to four years and eight months in prison and impose a fine of $456, according to TASS.
Russian prosecutors were seeking a four-year, eight-month sentence, while Black’s defense had asked for him to be acquitted of the charges.
Black’s defense will appeal the verdict.
Black and Vashchuk met in South Korea, where he was assigned to the Eighth Army at Camp Humphreys.
Black, who has a wife and child, had signed out on a permanent change of station to return to Fort Cavazos in Texas after he finished up his tour as an Army trainer on April 10.
Instead of flying back to the US, Black jumped on a plane to China before jetting off to Russia to meet up with Vashchuk.
When he landed in Vladivostok, the 16-year Army vet was pulled off the plane and arrested for supposedly stealing property from a person later identified as Vashchuk.
Black’s mother Melody Jones said she is convinced her son had been lured to Russia by Vashchuk.
“He wanted to see her for the last time before going home, and so he went there,” Jones told NBC News in May. “I think she convinced him to come there.”
Jones’ was worried about Black going to Russia because “the government there has been grabbing Americans.”
“I told him not to go. I was more worried about him going to Russia than I was when he was in Iraq and Afghanistan,” she said.
Megan Black first became aware of the Russian girlfriend in January 2022 — five months before the couple initiated divorce proceedings — when she saw photos of the couple on Facebook, with the girlfriend calling him “her husband.”
Megan Black said she had no advance knowledge of her estranged husband traveling to Russia.
Megan Black’s lawyers say she believes it was an “ill-advised” trip that was “motivated by entirely personal reasons involving an extra-marital affair.”
Black was constantly arguing with Vashchuk as the couple “fought like cats and dogs.”
During a video call back home to speak with his 6-year-old daughter, Black got into a violent argument with Vashchuk, who was seen on camera clawing at his face before pulling out a knife.
“She stabbed him,” Megan Black told Reuters, saying Black “had blood on his face.” Her daughter was distraught.
Vashchuk was not at the court on Wednesday.
The Pentagon claims Black broke Army rules with his unauthorized trip to Russia.
Vashchuk was not at the court on Wednesday.
The US State Department advises against all travel to Russia, which it ranks as a maximum danger alongside countries such as Afghanistan, Syria, Iran and Sudan.
Russia is holding at least a dozen American citizens in jail, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who will go on trial behind closed doors on charges of espionage next week.
Gershkovich has denied the charges of collecting secrets for the US CIA.
