A U.S. soldier detained in Russia last week will remain in prison until at least July while authorities investigate theft charges against him, Russian news media said on Tuesday, citing local court officials.
The soldier was detained in Russia’s eastern port city of Vladivostok on Thursday, a local court spokesman told Sputnik. Russian business newspaper Kommersant.his detention Exposed on Mondaywhen the U.S. State and Defense Departments said he was being held.
A U.S. military officer identified him as Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, an Army sergeant, was returning home to Texas after being stationed in South Korea.
A U.S. citizen identified only with the letter B has been detained on suspicion of robbing a woman and causing her “considerable harm,” a Vladivostok court said in a press release on Tuesday.
Officials in Moscow have not yet commented on the arrest, and the Vladivostok court press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
Mr Black’s detention revealed Vladimir V. Putin is preparing to be sworn in as Russia’s president for a fifth term Tuesday amid a bellicose standoff with the West.
Black is the latest American to be detained in Russia in recent years on charges that U.S. officials say are often trumped up. The detentions further soured already tense relations between Russia and the United States, which have clashed over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a host of other issues, including those that Washington says are pushed by Moscow. Placing nuclear weapons in space.
It was unclear why Black ended up in Vladivostok, a military port near the headquarters of Russia’s Pacific Fleet that had been closed to outsiders for decades under Soviet rule. It’s unclear how Black obtained a visa to Russia.
A U.S. State Department official on Monday reiterated the U.S. government’s warning to Americans not to travel to Russia.
NBC News reported Monday Mr Black traveled from South Korea to Vladivostok to visit a woman with whom he had been romantically involved. He failed to notify his superiors about the trip, the outlet reported.
Ekaterina Bodigina and Oleg Matznev Contributed reporting.
