The worried mother of a U.S. soldier in Russian custody said Wednesday that her son “was lured” there by a Russian woman he had been seeing in South Korea for over a year and that he’s being held on trumped-up charges of stealing roughly $100 from her.

Melody Jones said she thinks her son, Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, was set up by his girlfriend, whom she identified as Aleksandra Vashchuk.

“I think she convinced him to come there,” Jones said in a video interview from her home in Cheyenne, Wyoming. “He wanted to see her for the last time before going home, and so he went there.”

The Russians detained Black, 34, on theft charges last week after he traveled from the military base in South Korea where he had been stationed to the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok.

A Defense Department spokesperson said Tuesday that the Army is investigating whether Russia’s intelligence services specifically targeted Black.

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    When I originally read about this I assumed he was some dumb kid, but someone that’s been in the service for 16 years should know better.

    • LustyArgonianMana@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      “They have a 6½-year-old daughter,” Jones said. “And she misses her daddy.”

      He was also cheating on his wife with this woman for over a year and delayed getting back home to his daughter so he could go to Russia to cheat on the mother of his child.

      He should have known better on many levels.

      And I don’t think he gives a single fuck about his daughter.