Two American citizens, including a serving U.S. soldier, were taken into custody in Russia in connection with minor criminal offenses, local authorities said on Tuesday.
According to a statement released by the Interior Ministry’s regional office on Tuesday, the soldier, identified as Staff Sergeant Gordon Black, was arrested on allegations of stealing by a Vladivostok court on Monday and held on criminal misconduct charges.
Black, 34, had been stationed in the South Korean port of Pyeongtaek and was on his way back to Fort Cavazos in Texas when he traveled to Vladivostok, which is located on the borders of North Korea and China on the Sea of Japan, according to the Associated Press.
While in the Korean peninsula, Black had reportedly met a Russian woman, who later relocated back to Vladivostok. Black, who is married, later got into a fight when he paid her a visit to Russia, leading her to charge him with assaulting her and making off with 200,000 rubles (around $2,200).
The suspect was caught in a local hotel after purchasing an airline ticket to return home. According to the RIA news agency, the court ordered Black’s detention to last at least until July 2. The Russian Foreign Ministry declared there was no apparent political component to his case.
“As far as we understand, this is a purely everyday crime,” the Vladivostok branch of the ministry was quoted by the Russian media outlet TASS as saying.
Also on Tuesday, a Moscow court said that a U.S. citizen named William Russell Nycum had been placed under remand for ten days due to “petty hooliganism”. According to the report, he had “expressed obvious disrespect to society, citizens, and public order” as he was discovered naked and drunk in a public area.
The State Department officially advises Americans not to travel to Russia, urging those who do to “exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions.”
