Russia on Tuesday remanded a US soldier in custody until July in the far eastern city of Vladivostok after he was detained on suspicion of theft.
The US Army said the soldier, identified by a court in Vladivostok as Gordon Black, had been detained on criminal charges.
It withheld details, citing the sensitivity of the case.
The detention of Black adds to the number of US citizens held in Russia at a time of tensions with Washington over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Primorye regional court spokeswoman Elena Oleneva said Black was detained on May 2 and would be held in pre-trial detention until July 2 for theft, state-run Ria Novosti news agency reported.
Vladivostok city police said they had arrested a 34-year-old foreigner and opened a criminal case over theft causing significant harm to the victim, punishable by up to five years in prison.
The suspect is being held in a pre-trial detention centre in the city, they said.
Police said the man had begun a relationship with a Russian woman while she was working in South Korea.
They kept in touch online and he came to visit her on April 10.
The couple had a “conflict” and the man left.
Afterwards, the woman found money was missing and called police, who tracked down the man in a hotel, as he was preparing to fly out to the United States.
Russian newspaper Izvestia reported earlier, citing a source, that the man had stolen 200,000 rubles ($2,200) and beaten the woman up.
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Case ‘not related’ to politics
A Russian foreign ministry representative in Vladivostok told TASS state news agency that the case was not linked to politics.
“This case is not related to politics or espionage. As far as we understand this is a purely domestic crime
“Therefore the foreign ministry branch in Vladivostok is not following the US citizen’s fate closely.”
RIA Novosti quoted US Army spokeswoman Cynthia Smith as saying the man’s family had been informed and he was receiving consular support.
Citing US officials, NBC News reported that the soldier had been stationed in South Korea and was heading back to the United States when he stopped off in Russia without requesting permission from his superiors.
Republican Congressman Michael McCaul, representing Texas, said in a statement posted on X that he was “deeply concerned by reports that a US Army officer has been detained in Russia”.
“Putin has a long history of holding American citizens hostage,” he said of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“A warning to all Americans — as the State Department has said, it is not safe to travel to Russia.”
Russian authorities have arrested several US citizens in recent years.
Critics accuse Moscow of using detainees as bargaining chips to exchange for Russians jailed in the United States.
Separately, a Moscow district court on Tuesday sentenced a US citizen to 10 days in detention for petty hooliganism.
REN TV reported the man had climbed through the window of a children’s library and fallen asleep there while drunk.
It said the man was staying with friends in Moscow on a tourist visa.
AFP
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