You remember Sergeant Black, don’t you? He’s the American soldier who got himself caught in a Russian “honey trap” while stationed in South Korea, when his Russian girlfriend invited him to visit her in Vladivostok before returning to his home base in Texas . . . and he accepted. And somehow, he managed to forget about applying for the necessary clearance from the Army first.

But things apparently turned sour in the Russian Far East, and Sergeant Black ended up moving out of his honey’s apartment and into a local hotel. But first he seems to have “borrowed” $113 from her — again, without first asking permission, which has been a big problem for him. She also accused him of threatening to kill her, which he denied.

But he was out of reach of U.S. military justice, and instead was found guilty by a Russian court and sentenced to nearly four years in a penal colony.

Yesterday, the Primorsky Krai Court denied Black’s appeal, sending him back to prison to complete the terms of his sentence. According to his defense attorney, “the verdict did not rely on case materials, ignored evidence confirming Black’s innocence, and incorrectly interpreted his actions toward the victim.” [Reuters, August 19, 2024.]

I can’t even imagine how frustrating it must be, trying to practice law in Putin’s Russia.

And so Staff Sergeant Gordon Black remains one of the eight Americans on my list of hostages still being held by Vladimir Putin, presumably to be used as collateral when there is another Russian criminal sitting in a foreign jail somewhere, waiting to return home.

Yet people from other countries — not just Americans — continue to go there, or not take their embassies’ advice when told to leave.

I suppose they’d walk into a lion’s cage, too, if the lion asked them nicely enough.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
8/20/24