US soldier loses appeal against Russian prison sentence

Gordon Black was jailed by a Vladivostok court for threatening to kill his girlfriend

A Russian court has upheld a prison sentence of almost four years for an American soldier who was found guilty of stealing money and threatening to kill his girlfriend. The 34-year-old will serve his time in a penal colony.

Gordon Black, a staff sergeant in the US Army, was sentenced to three years and nine months in a penal colony in June, after he was found guilty of grand larceny and death threats. 

The court ruled that Black assaulted and threatened to kill his girlfriend, Aleksandra Vashuck, at her apartment in Vladivostok in April, before taking 10,000 rubles ($116) from her purse. He pleaded not guilty to threatening to kill Vashuck, and told the court that he transferred her the money he took the following day.

A panel of judges in the Primorsky Krai Court heard Black’s appeal, but left the sentence unchanged, the court said in a statement on Monday. 

READ MORE: US soldier pleads guilty in Russia

Black met Vashuck on Tinder while he was stationed in South Korea, according to US media reports. They dated until she moved back to Russia, settling in Vladivostok. His mother told the New York Post that the soldier was in the middle of a divorce from his wife, with whom he has a six-year-old daughter. Black reportedly took leave in April, and instead of going back to his home base in Texas, he traveled to Russia via China without permission from his superiors.