US soldier was detained on suspicion of stealing and will remain in custody until July according to Russia

US soldier was detained on suspicion of stealing and will remain in custody until July according to Russia
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Following his detention on allegations of stealing, a Russian court confirmed on Tuesday that an American soldier will be detained for a minimum of two months.

According to a statement from the court’s spokeswoman Elena Oleneva, “American soldier Gordon Black was arrested by the Pervomaisky District Court in Vladivostok until July 2 under the ‘theft’ article” of Russia’s criminal code.

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The court added in a separate statement that Black, a Staff Sgt., was arrested in Russia last week and will be remanded in pre-trial custody, referring solely to “U.S. citizen B.”

Black was accused by the court of “secretly stealing property” belonging to a person known only as “citizen T,” and it was stated that this had resulted in “significant damage” for the purported victim.

According to the court, his imprisonment was necessary to stop him from avoiding prosecution.

“The court came to its decision that U.S. citizen B., under the weight of the allegations in order to avoid responsibility, could hide from the initial inquiry of authorities and the court, thus avoiding the proceedings in the case,” stated the statement.

The soldier was arrested after going to Vladivostok, a city in far eastern Russia, from his station in South Korea, according to information released by NBC News on Monday.

According to officials, he stopped in Russia while on his way back to the United States to see a woman he was romantically connected with.

A U.S. Army spokesman confirmed on Monday that Black was taken into custody on Thursday.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Vladivostok office, his imprisonment is unrelated to politics, as reported by state news agency TASS on Tuesday.

This case is unrelated to espionage or politics. To the best of our knowledge, this case appears to involve a suspected domestic offense. According to TASS, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s envoy in Vladivostok stated that this is the reason they are not paying careful attention to the situation of the American citizen.

The chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, expressed his “deep concern” about the news on Monday. The detention, he wrote on X, was “A caution to all Americans—as the State Department has said, it is not safe for Americans to go to Russia.”

The United States State Department’s most recent travel advisory against visiting Russia at all.

Other Americans detained in Russian jails include former Marine Paul Whelan, imprisoned in 2018, and Wall Street Journal writer Evan Gershkovich, jailed in March of last year. According to the US government, both are unjustly imprisoned.

On Tuesday, it was made public that another American person had been taken into custody and arrested in Russia. Russell William Nycum, the man in question, was given a 10-day jail sentence for “petty hooliganism,” as reported by the official Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Referring to REN-TV, According to RIA, the American “fell asleep in a children’s library after getting drunk and climbing through the window.”

According to the Associated Press, the number of American citizens detained in Russia has surpassed that of the Cold War.

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