MOSCOW, April 7, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A Russian court has reduced the almost four-year jail term of a US soldier convicted of threatening to kill his girlfriend and stealing from her by seven months, Russian news agencies reported on Monday.

Gordon Black, a US staff sergeant, was sentenced in June 2024 to three years and nine months in prison by a court in Vladivostok, in Russia's far east.

An appeal court in the city ruled on Monday to reduce Black's conviction to "three years and two months of imprisonment" following an appeal by his lawyer, the TASS news agency reported.

His lawyer had asked the court to throw out his conviction for threatening to murder, and to reclassify his conviction for stealing to a less severe charge, Russia's Kommersant daily reported.

Black was arrested in Vladivostok last May, while he was visiting a Russian woman he met and dated while serving in South Korea.

He was detained after the woman, named by Russian media as Alexandra Vashuk, reported him to the police following an argument.

Vashuk had accused Black of stealing some 10,000 rubles ($118) from her and said he had physically attacked her.

Black pleaded "partially guilty" to theft, but not guilty to threatening to kill Vashuk, Russian media reported.

US media have said the arrest could have been a "honey trap" operation targeting an American citizen.

The ruling comes amid a thaw in relations between Russia and the United States, as President Donald Trump pushes to end his predecessor Joe Biden's policy of isolating Moscow over the Ukraine conflict.

In February, Russia freed a US citizen, Kalob Byers, just a few days after detaining him at a Moscow airport for possession of cannabis-laced gummies in his luggage.

Russia continues to hold several other US citizens in detention, however, including ballerina Ksenia Karelina and retired English teacher Stephen Hubbard.