EXCLUSIVE: Before arrest in Russia, U.S. soldier's relationship with Russian mistress turned bloody

Record ID: 1815166

  • Title: EXCLUSIVE: Before arrest in Russia, U.S. soldier's relationship with Russian mistress turned bloody
  • Date: 12th May 2024
  • Summary: KILLEEN, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (MAY 10, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) MEGAN BLACK, WIFE OF GORDON BLACK, SAYING: "The last time I got a message from him was May 2nd, telling me that he wasn't coming home." WHITE FLASH KILLEEN, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (MAY 10, 2024) (REUTERS) MEGAN BLACK, WIFE OF GORDON BLACK, CRYING AS HER LAWYER ANSWERS QUESTION FOR HER (SOUNDBITE) (E
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2024 14:12
  • Keywords: Gordon Black Megan Black Putin Russia United States soldier
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA006168610052024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Months before his arrest in Russia, U.S. Army soldier Gordon Black made a surprise video call from his overseas tour in South Korea to his six-year-old daughter back in Texas.
    But instead of a normal chat, his daughter and wife witnessed a fight break out between Black and his Russian
    girlfriend that turned bloody, his wife, Megan Black, said.
    Screaming turned to violence, with his girlfriend clawing at his face. Then she pulled a knife.
    "She stabbed him," Megan Black told Reuters in an exclusive interview, adding Black "had blood on his face." Her daughter was distraught.
    Black could not be reached for comment about the video call. The Army did not respond to a request for comment about his case. Reuters was unsuccessful reaching Black through the State Department.
    Black, a U.S. Army staff sergeant posted at Camp Humphreys outside Seoul, was arrested on May 2 in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok and is being held in pre-trial confinement after being accused of theft following an argument, according to Russian authorities.
    His mother, Melody Jones, told Reuters he followed his girlfriend to Russia even though they "fought like cats and dogs."
    "I told them both: You don't need to be together. One of you is going to get hurt one of these days," Jones said. "You know, because if you fight, it's a not a good thing if it's all you do."
    Black's arrest presents another headache for U.S. officials in Russia after other several high profile detention cases. An Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, Black broke the rules by traveling to Russia without Army authorization, and even flew through China to get there, the Pentagon says.
    But neither Russian authorities, the Pentagon, Black's wife nor his mother have suggested anything like espionage as a concern. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the case had no political element.
    In her only interview, Megan got emotional when recounting the ordeals involving her husband, and explained that they were in the process of finalizing a divorce when Black was arrested.
    Her attorney, Jeff Linick, said Black's wife had not received any of her husband's housing allowance, which he is given by the military. Linick said she and her daughter are entitled to support under military regulations, even if the couple is separated.
    Linick said Gordon Black was representing himself in the Texas divorce proceedings.
    Although Megan Black is caring for their daughter, her husband had refused to pay the court-ordered child support, Linick said. It was not until she went to the military and its lawyers that they recently started withholding some child support from his paychecks, he said.
    Megan Black said she met her husband at a bar in 2014 in Killeen, Texas, near his base at Fort Cavazos. The two hit it off quickly, and she recalls how he was charming and how he accepted her despite a speech impediment.
    "He was good to me at one point," she said.
    Things started to sour around 2018 and Gordon Black initiated divorce proceedings shortly after he left for South Korea.
    Megan Black said she first learned of the Russian girlfriend in January 2022 when she saw pictures of her and her husband together on Facebook. The Russian girlfriend was calling him "her husband" even back then, Megan said.
    "You are seeing my husband," Megan Black said, recounting her feelings at the time.
    Gordon Black's mother, Melody, said she thought the Russian girlfriend was "sent back" to Russia from South Korea, possibly after a problem with her paperwork. She had warned her son not to follow her there.
    "I tried to tell him not to go," she said.
    Megan said she and her daughter had no idea he was in Russia, and had been expected him back in Texas since his tour in South Korea had just ended.
    On May 2, the day Russian authorities say they arrested him at a local hotel, Megan says she got a text message from him "telling me that he wasn't coming home."
    That's the last she heard from him.
    She said the case has hurt her daughter's image of her father.
    "She now looks at her Dad as a bad man," she said.
    (Production: Phillip Stewart, Idrees Ali, Deborah Lutterbeck)
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