Russia reduces prison sentence for US soldier convicted of theft

An appellate court in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok has reduced the prison sentence of an American soldier convicted of stealing and making threats of murder. Staff Sgt. Gordon Black flew to the Pacific port city to see his girlfriend and was arrested in May 2024 after she accused him of stealing from her, according to U.S. officials and Russian authorities. A month later, a court in Vladivostok convicted him and sentenced him to three years and nine months in prison. Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti reported a judge agreed Monday to reduce his sentence to three years and two months in prison.