Months before his arrest in Russia, US Army soldier Gordon Black did a surprise video call from South Korea, where he was deployed, to his 6-year-old daughter in Texas. Instead of a normal conversation, however, his daughter and wife witnessed a fight that broke out between Black and his Russian girlfriend, which turned bloody, said his wife Megan, quoted by Reuters and BTA.
The screams escalated into violence, and his girlfriend scratched his face. Then she pulled out a knife, Megan Black also stated.
"She stabbed him," the woman said in an exclusive interview with Reuters, adding that Black "had blood on his face". Their daughter was traumatized by what she saw.
Black has not yet been reached for comment. The Army did not respond to a request for comment on his case.
Black, a US Army staff sergeant stationed at Camp Humphreys. near Seoul, was detained on May 2 in the Russian Far Eastern city of Vladivostok and is being held in pretrial detention on charges of theft following a dispute, according to Russian authorities.
His mother, Melody Jones, told Reuters that he had followed his girlfriend to Russia, even though they constantly fought.
Black's arrest represents yet another headache for US authorities, who are already dealing with several high-profile detentions in Russia, including that of a reporter for the "Wall Street Journal" Evan Gershkovich and the former US Marine Paul Whelan, notes Reuters.
A veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Black violated military regulations by traveling to Russia without military clearance and flying through China to get there, the Pentagon said.
Neither the Russian authorities, nor the Pentagon, nor Black's wife, nor his mother have talked about espionage. The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that there was no political element in the case.
In the interview, Megan Black described life with her husband and explained that the two had agreed on the details of their divorce when Black was arrested.
Her attorney, Jeff Linick, said she and her daughter are entitled to child support under military regulations, even if the couple is separated.
Although Megan Black cares for their daughter, her husband has refused to pay court-ordered child support, Linick said. It wasn't until she went to the military and their lawyers that they started deducting child support money from his wages. Linick said Gordon Black is representing himself in the Texas divorce.
Megan Black said she met her husband at a bar in 2014 in Texas, near his base. They initially got along well, but their relationship began to sour around 2018 and Gordon Black began divorce proceedings shortly after leaving for South Korea.
Megan Black said she first learned about the Russian girlfriend around January 2022 when she saw pictures of them together on "Facebook".
Jones said he believed the Russian girlfriend was "sent back" in Russia from South Korea, probably after a problem with her documents.
"I tried to tell him not to go," she said. Meghan Black, in turn, said that she and her daughter did not know he was in Russia and were expecting him in Texas as his assignment in South Korea was ending.
On May 2 - the day Russian authorities said they had arrested him at a local hotel - Megan Black said she received a text from her husband "saying he wasn't coming home".
That was the last she heard from him.