Pentagon officials say U.S. Army soldier detained in Russia remains in pretrial detention facility

Pentagon officials said Tuesday that a U.S. Army soldier detained in Vladivostok, Russia, last Thursday is currently in a pretrial detention center and will remain there until his next hearing, although the date of that hearing was not immediately known.

Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters during a news briefing that Sgt. Gordon Black enlisted in the Army as an infantryman in 2008 and was most recently assigned to the Eighth Army, US Forces Korea at Camp Humphreys, Republic of South Korea.

“On April 10, Black left Eighth Army and signed a permanent change of station to depart en route to Texas,” Singh said. “However, instead of returning to the United States, Black flew from Korea through China and then to Vladivostok, Russia, for personal reasons.”

He added that Black is currently in a pretrial detention center, where he understood he will remain until his next hearing.

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The military has opened an administrative investigation to determine the facts and circumstances surrounding his trip, Singh said, and part of the investigation will involve examining the consequences of his actions.

“But, any official permission or any permission to Russia is strictly prohibited, and that is in accordance with the Department of Defense. [Department of Defense] foreign clearance guide, which of course is also based on State Department guidelines,” Singh said, adding that he believed the status was set at Category Four, which does not allow travel to Russia.

On Tuesday, Black’s mother, Melody Jones, told ABC’s “Good Morning America” ​​(GMA) that she believed her son had been “set up” by his girlfriend.

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Defense Department spokeswoman Sabrina Singh holds a news conference at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

She told “GMA” that her son met a Russian woman when she was tending bar near their military base in South Korea, and was later deported back to Russia.

“I knew something was going to happen,” Jones told “GMA.” “I felt like she was setting him up.”

Jones described her son’s relationship with the Russian woman as “volatile” and even suspected his long-time girlfriend might be a spy. He said she told his son not to travel to Russia when he was supposed to return to the United States while he was on leave.

“Did she provoke the argument? Did she start the fight so he could be arrested?” -Jones asked. The charges Black faces involve beating a woman and stealing money from her, according to “GMA,” which cited reports from Russian television.

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The Russian port city of Vladivostok, where American soldier Sgt. Gordon Black was arrested last Thursday. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)

Black was deployed to Iraq from October 2009 to September 2010, and to Afghanistan from June 2013 to March 2014, Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said.

Smith said Black, an infantryman, did not request official authorization and was not authorized to go to those countries.

“There is no evidence that Black intended to remain in Russia after his PCS leave period ended,” Smith said.

The State Department strongly advises U.S. citizens not to go to Russia and advises those already there to leave.

EVAN GERSHKOVICH IS ONE YEAR IN PRISON IN RUSSIA WHILE HIS FRIENDS CAN ONLY WAIT FOR THE ‘NIGHTMARE’ TO END

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich is escorted from the Lefortovsky court in Moscow, Russia. Gershkovich remains detained on espionage charges. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Several other Americans, along with Black, remain detained in Russia.

William Nycum, an English teacher in Russia on a six-month tourist visa, was found Friday in a Moscow children’s library after breaking a window to gain entry, the Associated Press reported. Russian newspaper Izvestia says there is CCTV footage capturing a partially naked Nycum breaking into the children’s library, according to a British publication. The daily mirror. He was sentenced to 10 days in jail.

Corporate security executive Paul Whelan, convicted of espionage, and Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested in March 2023 on espionage charges, are two Americans detained by Russia. The United States government has identified both as unjustly detained and has been trying to negotiate their release.

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Other detainees include Travis Leake, a musician who had lived in Russia for years and was arrested last year on drug charges; Marc Fogel, a Moscow professor sentenced to 14 years in prison, also on drug charges; and dual nationals Alsou Kurmasheva and Ksenia Khavana.

Pilar Arias of Fox News Digital and The Associated Press contributed to this report.