Wife of American soldier jailed in Russia claims she saw his local girlfriend stab him during video call with their six-year-old daughter

US 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.

Instead of a normal chat, however, his daughter and wife witnessed a fight break out between Black and his Russian girlfriend that became bloody, said his wife, Megan. 

Screaming turned to violence, with his girlfriend clawing at his face. Then she pulled a knife.

'She stabbed him,' Megan Black said, adding her husband 'had blood on his face'. Her daughter was distraught.

Black, a US Army staff sergeant posted at Camp Humphreys outside Seoul, was arrested on May 2 in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok.

He is being held in pre-trial confinement, accused of theft after an argument, according to Russian authorities.

Megan's lawyer, Jeff Linick, detailed the fight that broke out during the video call.

'She got a call out of the blue from him insisting on speaking with his daughter. She was not expecting the call,' he said.

'When she got it, he was apparently in a taxi cab of some sort. At some point in the midst of this, a woman entered into the picture and apparently started yelling something in Russian.

'She doesn't speak Russian so she doesn't exactly know what was stated, she was obviously in the vehicle with him, and at some point this escalated into where she actually pulled a knife on him.

'The altercation... escalated dramatically, which I believe at which point I think you cut the call off at that point.'

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 a not a good thing if it's all you do.'

Black's arrest presents another headache for US officials already coping with several high-profile detention cases in Russia, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelan.

An Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, Black broke army rules by traveling to Russia without Army authorization, and flew through China to get there, the Pentagon says.

Neither Russian authorities, the Pentagon, Black's wife nor his mother have suggested anything like espionage as a concern. The Russian Foreign Ministry said the case had no political element.

Megan became emotional when describing 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 is given by the military. 

He said she and her daughter were entitled to support under military regulations, even if the couple is separated.

Although Megan is caring for their daughter, her husband refused to pay the court-ordered child support, Linick said. 

It was not until she went to the military and its lawyers that they recently started withholding some child support from his paychecks, he said.

'It really took pulling teeth... essentially threaten legal enforcement to finally get the Army - I imagine against his wishes - to finally withhold some child support from his payments,' Linick said.

The Army did not respond to a request for comment about 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, as I was different because I have this speech impediment,' she said.

Things started to sour around 2018, and Black initiated divorce proceedings shortly after he left for South Korea.

'He wanted like an open [relationship],' Megan said. 

Megan said she first learned of the Russian girlfriend in January 2022 when she saw pictures of them together on Facebook. The girlfriend was calling him 'her husband', Black said.

Jones said she thought the Russian girlfriend 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,' she said. 

Megan said she and her daughter had no idea he was in Russia and had been expecting him in Texas, as his tour in South Korea had just ended.

Black broke Army rules by traveling to Russia without authorization, and flew through China to get there, according to the Pentagon.

Neither Russian authorities, the Pentagon, nor Black's wife suggested anything like 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 got a message from him 'telling me that he wasn't coming home'.

That was the last she heard from him.

She said the case has hurt her daughter's image of her father. 'She now looks at her dad as a bad man,' she said.