U.S. Army soldier Gordon Black made a surprise video call from his overseas tour in South Korea to his six-year-old daughter in Texas, months before his arrest in Russia.
However, instead of a normal conversation, his daughter and his wife witnessed a fight between Black and his Russian girlfriend that turned bloody, his wife, Megan, said.
The screams turned into violence and his girlfriend scratched his face. She then she pulled out a knife.
“She stabbed him,” Megan Black said, adding that her husband “had blood on his face.” Her daughter was distraught.
Black, a U.S. Army sergeant stationed at Camp Humphreys outside Seoul, was arrested on May 2 in the city of Vladivostok, in far eastern Russia.
Sergeant Gordon Black, 35, had just finished his service in South Korea and traveled to Russia without any permission before being arrested.
According to Russian authorities, he is being held in preventive detention, accused of robbery after an argument.
Megan’s attorney, Jeff Linick, detailed the fight that broke out during the video call.
‘She received an unexpected call from him insisting on speaking to her daughter. “She wasn’t expecting the call,” she said.
“When he met him, apparently he was in some kind of taxi. At some point in the middle of this, a woman entered the scene and apparently started shouting something in Russian.
“She doesn’t speak Russian so she doesn’t know exactly what was said, she was obviously in the vehicle with him, and at some point this got to the point where she actually pulled a knife on him.”
“The altercation … escalated dramatically, and I believe at that point the call was disconnected.”
Kremlin-controlled Russian television said Black was arrested for beating a woman, identified as Aleksa Viktorovna, 31, (pictured together) and stealing money from her.
Jones said Black met his girlfriend at a club in South Korea more than a year ago and they had a “volatile” relationship.
His mother, Melody Jones, said he followed his girlfriend to Russia even though they “fought like cats and dogs.”
‘I told them both: You don’t need to be together. One of you is going to get hurt one of these days,’ she said.
“You know, because if you fight, it’s not a good thing if it’s all you do.”
Black’s arrest presents another headache for U.S. officials already dealing with several high-profile detention cases in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.
Black, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, violated Army rules by traveling to Russia without Army authorization and flew through China to get there, the Pentagon says.
Neither Russian authorities, nor the Pentagon, nor Black’s wife or his mother have suggested anything resembling espionage as a cause for concern. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the case had no political element.
Megan became emotional as she described life with her husband and explained that they were finalizing their divorce when Black was arrested.
Linick said Black’s wife had not received any of her husband’s housing allowance, which he receives from the military.
She said she and her daughter were entitled to support under military rules, even if the couple is separated.
His mother, Melody Jones, said Black was on leave for two weeks when he traveled to Russia.
Black claimed that his girlfriend was deported from South Korea after being involved in a dispute in the fall of 2023.
Although Megan cares for her daughter, her husband refused to pay court-ordered child support, Linick said.
It wasn’t until he turned to the military and his lawyers that they recently began withholding some support from his paychecks, he said.
“It really took some teeth pulling … essentially threatening law enforcement to finally get the military – I imagine against their wishes – to finally withhold some of their support payments,” Linick said.
The Army did not respond to a request for comment on the support payments and Black could not be reached for comment. Linick said Black was representing himself in the Texas divorce.
Megan said she met her husband at a bar in 2014 in Killeen, Texas, near his base at Fort Cavazos, and recalled that he was charming at first and they hit it off quickly.
“He was good to me, at one point. He accepted me, because I was different because I have this speech impediment,” he said.
Aleksa Viktorovnais pictured holding a rifle
Things started to get worse around 2018 and Black began divorce proceedings shortly after leaving for South Korea.
“He wanted an open (relationship),” Megan said.
Megan said she first found out about the Russian bride in January 2022 when she saw photos of them together on Facebook. The girlfriend called him “her husband,” Black said.
Jones said he thought the Russian bride was “sent back” to Russia from South Korea, possibly after a problem with her paperwork. She had warned her son not to follow her there.
“I tried to tell him not to go,” he said.
Megan said she and her daughter had no idea he was in Russia and were waiting for him in Texas, as his tour of South Korea had just ended.
Melody Jones said Black was on leave for two weeks when he traveled to Russia and that he felt like he was being set up because he suspected his girlfriend was a spy.
Black violated Army rules by traveling to Russia without authorization and flew through China to get there, according to the Pentagon.
Neither Russian authorities, nor the Pentagon, nor Black’s wife suggested anything resembling espionage as a concern.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the case had no political element.
On May 2, the day Russian authorities said they arrested him at a local hotel, Megan said she received a message from him “telling me he wasn’t coming home.”
That was the last she heard from him.
He said the case has damaged his daughter’s image of her father. “He now sees her father as a bad man,” she said.
