U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Gordon Black, who was arrested in the Far East city of Vladivostok in early May on suspicion of theft, has been additionally charged with threatening to kill his partner, a Russian woman, according to Russian media.
A district prosecutor's office in Vladivostok said in a statement on May 27 that the final accusation papers for "a U.S. citizen" had been submitted and the case sent to court.
"The man, born in 1989, was handed accusation papers saying that in May 2024, while he was in an apartment on Sakhalin street in Vladivostok that is owned by a woman with whom he is acquainted, and where he was residing with her since April, forcibly grabbed the young woman's neck during a quarrel, which she considered as a threat to her life," a statement of the prosecutor's office said.
"The suspect then stole 10,000 rubles [$110] from the victim's purse, which he spent for his own needs, including paying for a room in a hotel, where he was detained," it added.
If found guilty on both charges, Black faces up to seven years in prison.
U.S. authorities said earlier that Black had been arrested in Russia and accused of stealing from a woman after traveling via China from South Korea -- where he had been assigned before returning home to Texas -- without informing his superiors.
Weeks later, Russian authorities also said that another U.S. citizen, identified as William Russell Nycum, had been detained in late April on "petty hooliganism" and alcohol charges in a separate case, adding that Nycum was held in a detention center in Moscow.
The two arrests again raised questions over whether Russian authorities are targeting Americans for potential prisoner swaps amid sharp disagreements between Moscow and Washington over the war in Ukraine and other international security issues.
The detentions of Black and Nycum added to a list of U.S. citizens being held in Russia under various circumstances and came as tensions between Moscow and Washington are at the highest levels since the Cold War.
Among those being held are journalists Alsu Kurmasheva of RFE/RL and Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal. Both have been detained on charges they, their employers, and their supporters reject as politically motivated.
American Paul Whelan in 2020 was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in Russian prison on espionage charges that he and the U.S. government have repeatedly rejected.
Russia's Foreign Ministry has said Black's and Nycum's cases are not political and neither is accused of espionage.
The State Department in September 2023 issued a "do not travel" warning to U.S. citizens and cited "the singling out of U.S. citizens for detention by Russian government security officials."