The anxious mom of a U.S. soldier in Russian custody stated Wednesday that her kid “was tempted” there by a Russian female he hadactually been seeing in South Korea for over a year and that he’s being held on trumped-up charges of taking approximately $100 from her.
Melody Jones stated she believes her kid, Staff Sgt. Gordon Black, was set up by his sweetheart, whom she recognized as Aleksandra Vashchuk.
“I think she persuaded him to come there,” Jones stated in a video interview from her home in Cheyenne, Wyoming. “He desired to see her for the last time before going home, and so he went there.”
The Russians apprehended Black, 34, on theft charges last week after he tookatrip from the military base in South Korea where he hadactually been stationed to the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok.
A Defense Department representative stated Tuesday that the Army is examining whether Russia’s intelligence services particularly targeted Black.
“There is an administrative examination underway to figureout the truths and scenarios around his travel,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh stated at a news conference Tuesday.
Black is an experienced soldier with 16 years of service who was expected to be takingatrip to Fort Cavazos, Texas, to start a brand-new task, the military stated.
Asked why Black would danger takingatrip to a nation where other Americans are being held versus their will, Jones provided a one-word response.
“Her,” she stated. “He fulfilled her in the bar where she was working, and they’ve been together, on and off, for about a year and a half. I’ve neverever satisfied her in individual, however I’ve spoken to her over Messenger. My motherly impulses informed me something was incorrect with her.”
Jones stated her boy, who is in the middle of a divorce, “is a excellent youngboy with a adorable, jagged smile.”
“He was a great soldier, too,” and he speaks proficient Russian, she stated.
But Vashchuk had some kind of hold over him, she stated.
“I was talking about it with my otherhalf, and we wear’t understand what it is,” Jones stated. “Why would she lock on to him?”
On Tuesday, Radio Free Europe discovered what it states is the TikTok account of a female who published anumberof videos of her obviously with Black in South Korea in 2022 and2023 The female stated in the videos that she lived in South Korea for 5 years.
Jones stated that lady appeared to be Vashchuk.
The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry workplace in Vladivostok has stated Black’s detention had absolutelynothing to do with politics or espionage.
Black didn’t have Defense Department clearance to goto Russia, nor is there any sign that he prepared to stay there, Army representative Cynthia O. Smith stated earlier Tuesday.
An lawyer for Megan Black stated in a declaration Thursday that she and Black are in the procedure of separating.
She “firmly thinks that Mr. Black’s choice to travel to Russia, while inexpedient, was encouraged by totally individual factors including an extra-marital affair inbetween himself