If you’re a soldier who is considering leaving the Army to go cheat on your wife with your Russian girlfriend in her home country, uh, don’t do that.
Sadly, this advice is coming much too late for Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, who was recently arrested in Russia when his girlfriend accused him of theft.
FIRST ON NBC: A U.S. soldier was detained in Russia over the weekend according to three U.S. officials. He has been stationed in Korea and traveled to Russia on his own. He is accused of stealing but it’s not clear if those charges are legit or not. Developing …
— Courtney Kube (@ckubeNBC) May 6, 2024
More photos of the U.S. Army sergeant Gordon Black detained in Vladivostok on suspicion of theft. 34-year-old American and his Russian girlfriend Alexa. https://t.co/nlZELO7cwa pic.twitter.com/eBCksnhS5y
— Russian Market (@runews) May 7, 2024
“Staff Sgt. Gordon Black was arrested in Vladivostok last week after he left his posting in South Korea. He was supposed to travel to Fort Cavazos, Texas, to begin a new assignment, but he opted to travel to Russia, instead, the Army said,” writes Patrick Smith for NBC News.
Why did he do that, you ask? Well, Black was married, though his mom claims he was going through a divorce (we’ll drop the “cheating” accusation, then — man is going through enough at the moment).
While dealing with that and, you know, being a soldier, he met a Russian woman from Vladivostok named Aleksandra Vashchuk, who had allegedly been living in Korea. The two hit it off, and so, Black decided to throw his life to the wind by traveling to Russia at a time when the U.S. government really, really doesn’t want soldiers to do that.
Battalion Commander: ok, gents, let's be smart this weekend. See you on Monday
— ░O░S░I░N░T░I░N░B░I░O░ (@GorillaOSINT) May 6, 2024
Me, the silliest SNCO in Korea, 5 minutes later: https://t.co/CTrzBq3Th7 pic.twitter.com/j6AKscimtA
In an interview with NBC News, Black’s mom says she was suspicious of the woman, saying that her “motherly instincts told me something was wrong with her.” Now, she’s accusing the woman of having lured her son to Russia for some nefarious purpose.
Looking at Vashchuk’s TikTok account, she may be right. Radio Free Europe found numerous videos of the couple that Vashchuk had posted to her personal account, including a few where she interrogates him about his political beliefs and one where she calls him “pindos,” a Russian slur for Americans.
Oh yeah, Black doesn’t speak Russian, as is evident in the videos. Pass the bread, because this looks like a great honeypot!
So the US soldier arrested by Russia traveled to Vladivostok to see a pro-Putin Russian girl who posted TikTok videos humiliating him in a language he doesn't understand & calling him a derogatory Russian term for an American. Good digging by @CarlSchreck https://t.co/eaWpMsSAXD
— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) May 7, 2024
Today, Black’s simple act of wanting to get in one last smash before going to Texas has him in a Russian jail cell. The crime he’s accused of is theft, with Radio Free Europe citing “several unidentified U.S. officials as saying that Black had been charged with stealing from [Vashchuk].”
Currently, he’s in two months of pretrial detention, and I’ll be honest, the outlook for whatever will happen after that isn’t great. Pro tip: If you’re a soldier, maybe meet your Russian girlfriend somewhere that isn’t her home country.
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