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Russian state media say jailed U.S. soldier Gordon Black pleads “partially guilty” to theft charge
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Moscow — A U.S. soldier held in Russia denied threatening a Russian woman with murder while also pleading “partially” guilty to theft in a court in the far eastern city of Vladivostok Monday, according to Russia’s state-run media. U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Gordon Black was arrested in early May in Vladivostok, where he was visiting a Russian woman he met and dated while serving in South Korea.
He is the latest U.S. citizen to be held in Russia.
The 34-year-old was detained after the woman, named by Russian media as Alexandra Vashuk, reported him to the police after an argument.
Russian media on Monday quoted Black as saying he was “partially guilty” of theft but that it was not premeditated, and that he was “not guilty” of allegedly threatening Vashuk with murder. CBS News has not been able to obtain contact details for any lawyers representing Black in Russia, and it is not possible to verify information reported by Russian state media.
Russia’s state-run news outlets had said previously, in mid-May, that Black had entered a guilty plea to theft charges and was cooperating with investigators in the case.
Vashuk had accused Black of allegedly stealing some 10,000 rubles (100 euros) from her and said he had physically attacked her.
Gordon Black via Facebook via Reuters
Black said she had started an argument after drinking. He said the pair met in October 2022 on the dating app Tinder in South Korea and had dated there, before Vashuk then invited him to come to Vladivostok.
He said he did not plan to take the money and intended to give it back, saying he took it because he could not access his money in Russia, as it is held in a U.S. bank.
Black was detained in Vladivostok on May 2 and been held in pre-trial detention since then. He was stationed in South Korea, Pentagon officials told CBS News, and was in the process of changing duty stations to Fort Cavazos, formerly known as Fort Hood, in the U.S. when he went to Russia on unofficial travel.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters in early May that the U.S. was “aware of this case,” but that he couldn’t “say much about it right now.”
The charges against the American soldier carry up to five years in prison.
Black has been kept in pre-trial detention since his arrest in May. Unlike U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, who’s facing trial on espionage charges in Russia, the U.S. government has not declared Black to be wrongfully detained by Russian authorities.
A court in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg announced Monday that Gershkovich’s trial would begin on June 26 — behind closed doors, as is typical of espionage cases in Russia. His family, his employer The Wall Street Journal, and the Biden administration have all dismissed the charges against him as baseless.
U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan is also imprisoned in Russia, where he has remained behind bars since his arrest five years ago. He also stands accused of espionage, allegations the U.S. government and his family have rejected repeatedly as baseless.
CBS News
Biden heads to Wisconsin to kick off critical weekend for 2024 campaign
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Washington — President Biden is set to travel to the battleground state of Wisconsin on Friday for a campaign rally, marking the start of a crucial weekend for his reelection bid as he seeks to assuage concerns about his fitness for a second term sparked by his startling debate performance just over one week ago.
In addition to the campaign event in Madison, Wisconsin, on Friday afternoon, Mr. Biden will tape an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, which the network said will air in full Friday night. The president will also head to Philadelphia for another campaign event on Sunday, capping the July 4 holiday weekend with a visit to a second battleground state.
The president’s appearances are coming under new scrutiny following his poor showing against former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, in the first general election debate on June 27. Mr. Biden blamed his performance on a busy travel schedule leading up to the face-off with Trump, saying during a campaign event Tuesday that he “almost fell asleep” on stage after making two trips to Europe in June.
In a pair of radio interviews that aired Thursday, Mr. Biden admitted he had a “bad debate” and that he “screwed up.”
Mr. Biden’s campaign and the White House sought to brush off concerns about his lackluster performance by insisting he had a cold and that the debate fiasco was simply a “bad night.” As part of efforts to quiet concerns about Mr. Biden and his age, he and Vice President Kamala Harris participated in a call with campaign staff on Wednesday, and they met with 20 Democratic governors at the White House later that evening. Mr. Biden also spoke with the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, as well as other key allies on Capitol Hill.
The president has maintained the same message throughout the outreach, according to participants: he is in the race to defeat Trump and will not be pushed out.
“I learned from my father, when you get knocked down, just get back up, get back up,” Mr. Biden told “The Earl Ingram Show,” which airs in Wisconsin, in the radio interview Thursday. “And you know we’re going to win this election, we’re going to just beat Donald Trump.”
Amid the assurances, two House Democrats have openly called on Mr. Biden to withdraw from the presidential race: Reps. Lloyd Doggett of Texas and Raúl Grijalva of Arizona. Others, meanwhile, have publicly urged the president to take steps to prove to voters, elected Democrats and party donors that he is fit for a second term in the White House.
CBS News
Second round of voting in France this weekend as antisemitism concerns rise in Europe
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Vatican excommunicates ex-ambassador to U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, declares him guilty of schism
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A firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis’ most ardent critics has been excommunicated by the Vatican.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who once served as the Vatican’s ambassador to the U.S., was found guilty of schism. The Vatican’s doctrine office imposed the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday, a press statement said Friday.
The office cited Viganò’s “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council,” as its reasoning for the ruling.
Viganò, who retired in 2016 at age 75 and was the papal envoy in Washington from 2011-2026, convulsed the Holy See with accusations of sex abuse in 2018, calling on Francis to resign.
Patrick Semansky/AP
In an 11-page letter, Viganò claimed that in 2013 he told Francis of the allegations of sex abuse against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick. But, he wrote, the pontiff ignored that, and allowed McCarrick to continue to serve the church for another five years publicly. He said the pope should resign and subsequently branded him a “false prophet” and a “servant of Satan.”
In the letter, Viganò also made a number of ideological claims and was critical of homosexuals within Church ranks. He did not offer any proof for his statements.
The Vatican rejected the accusation of a cover-up of sexual misconduct and last month summoned Viganò to answer charges of schism and denying the pope’s legitimacy.
Viganò, who regarded the accusations “as an honor,” said he refused to take part in the disciplinary proceedings because he did not accept the legitimacy of the institutions behind it.
“I do not recognize the authority of the tribunal that claims to judge me, nor of its Prefect, nor of the one who appointed him,” he said in a statement issued last week, referring to the head of the doctrinal office, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, and to Francis.
Viganò restated his rejection of Vatican Council II, calling it “the ideological, theological, moral and liturgical cancer of which the (Francis’) ‘synod church’ is the necessary metastasis.”
He had not yet commented on the Vatican’s ruling on Friday.
McCarrick, the ex-archbishop of Washington, D.C., was defrocked by Pope Francis in 2019 after an internal Vatican investigation found he sexually molested adults as well as children.