The Army has stopped paying wages and allowances to a U.S. soldier sentenced last month to nearly four years in a Russian penal colony and may prosecute him if he returns to the United States, U.S. officials said.
Gordon Black, a 34-year-old staff sergeant, was convicted in Russia of theft and threatening murder.
But he broke a series of Army rules first, traveling to Russia without U.S. military authorization, and flying through China to get there.
He was also having an extramarital affair - prohibited in the U.S. military - with a Russian woman named Alexandra Vashchuk, who he met during a deployment in South Korea. During leave from the military, Black followed her to Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok, where she reported him to the police after an argument.
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, drew a comparison to the case of U.S. Army Private Travis King, who last year ran into North Korea and was taken into custody there.
Once the United States secured his release, King was charged in October by the Army with crimes including desertion.
The U.S. military is not providing Black with any special military counsel, the Army has said.
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@YearningCheeseGreen2yrs2Y
They should prosecute him, he was AWOL in a foreign country that we're essentially at war with. What tf was he thinking.
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
@ISIDEWITH2yrs2Y
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