EGN NEWS DESK
An American soldier detained in Russia final week will stay in jail till at the least July whereas the authorities examine theft costs towards him, the Russian information media reported on Tuesday, citing native courtroom officers.
The soldier was detained within the port metropolis of Vladivostok within the east of Russia on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the native courtroom instructed the Russian enterprise newspaper Kommersant. His detention got here to gentle on Monday, when the U.S. State and Defense Departments mentioned that he was being held.
An American navy official recognized him as Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, an Army sergeant within the means of returning residence to Texas after being stationed in South Korea.
A courtroom in Vladivostok mentioned in a information launch on Tuesday that an American citizen recognized solely by the letter B had been detained on suspicion of robbing a girl, inflicting her “appreciable hurt.”
Officials in Moscow haven’t commented on the arrest, and the press workplace for Vladivostok’s courts didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon Tuesday.
Sergeant Black’s detention got here to gentle as Vladimir V. Putin was getting ready to be sworn in for his fifth time period as Russia’s president on Tuesday, amid a bellicose standoff with the West.
Sergeant Black is the most recent American to be detained in Russia in recent times on what U.S. officers say are sometimes trumped-up costs. The higher-profile detentions have gnawed on the already frayed relationship between Russia and the United States, which have clashed most notably over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and in addition over a number of different issues, together with what Washington says is Moscow’s push to place a nuclear weapon in area.
Another American citizen has additionally individually been detained in Moscow. A Moscow courtroom mentioned on Tuesday {that a} man it recognized as William Russell Nikum had been fined and given a 10-day jail sentence for being drunk and disorderly.
He has not been charged with extra critical crimes, however previously Russian officers have typically prolonged minor jail sentences to maintain authorities critics in custody. American officers haven’t commented on Mr. Russel’s arrest.
In Sergeant Black’s case, it was unclear why he was in Vladivostok, a militarized port close to the headquarters of Russia’s Pacific Fleet that was closed to outsiders for many years beneath the Soviet Union. It was additionally unclear how he had obtained a visa to journey to Russia.
A State Department official on Monday reiterated the United States authorities’s warning for Americans to not journey to Russia.
NBC News reported on Monday that Sergeant Black had traveled to Vladivostok from South Korea to go to a girl with whom he was romantically concerned. He had not knowledgeable his superiors in regards to the journey, the outlet reported.
Ekaterina Bodyagina and Oleg Matsnev contributed reporting.
