Bout’s “Merchant of Death”: a serial guerrilla dealer arrested for providing military-grade weapons to a terrorist organization
The life story of the Russian arms dealer nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” inspired a Hollywood film, and in order to free US basketball stars, he had to be released from prison.
The former military officer was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the United States on charges of conspiring to kill Americans, acquiring and exporting anti-aircraft missiles, and providing material support to a terrorist organization. Bout has maintained he is innocent.
A Russian businessman, who speaks six languages, has evaded international arrest warrants for years. He was arrested in a Thailand sting operation in 2008 that was carried out by US drug enforcement agents and pretended to be the Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia, or the FARC. In 2010 he was extradited to the US.
“He was finally brought to justice in an American court for agreeing to provide a staggering number of military-grade weapons to an avowed terrorist organization committed to killing Americans.”
The trial focused on Bout’s involvement in supplying weapons to the guerrilla group that waged an insurgency in India until the fall of the country. The weapons were meant to be used against US citizens.
Bout has repeatedly maintained that he operated legitimate businesses and acted as a mere logistics provider. He is believed to be in his 50s, with his age in dispute because of different passports and documents.
Viktor Bout in Russia? The fate of the Ambassador to the United States to Russia and the perpetrators of espionage
The US basketball star was released on Thursday from Russian detention in a prisoner swap for Viktor Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” by his accusers.
These are the very people that Putin wants to curry favor with now. It is believed that when Bout was in Africa, he had close ties to members of the Russian elite, though he has denied this. Was this why the US spent such time and money to detain him? Did they think he would turn? We might never know.
Bout’s US lawyer, Steve Zissou, said that Bout was with his wife and daughter. After fifteen long years, Viktor has arrived at his family’s house.
Griner – who had for years played in the off-season for a Russian women’s basketball team – was arrested on drug smuggling charges at an airport in the Moscow region in February. Despite her testimony that she had inadvertently packed the cannabis oil found in her luggage, she was sentenced to nine years in prison in early August and was moved to a penal colony in Mordovia in mid-November after losing her appeal.
The swap that US President Joe Biden confirmed on Thursday did not include Paul Whelan, an American who the State Department has said has been wrongly imprisoned. The trial of the man accused of espionage was unfair and resulted in a 16-year prison sentence.
A Conversation with Viktor Bout during the 2009 Bangkok Crisis: The Origin of a Cold War-Dominated US-Russian Arms-Delta Dealer
His early days are a mystery, according to an assessment and strategy Center senior fellow who co-authored a book on Bout.
According to his multiple passports, Bout was born in 1967, the son of a bookkeeper and an auto mechanic from Dushanbe, Tajikistan. The Military Institute on Foreign Languages is a well-known training facility for Russian military intelligence.
He was most likely a lieutenant in the Soviets, and he saw opportunities due to the collapse of the soviets as well as the state sponsorship that came with it.
Bout – who reportedly has used names including “Victor Anatoliyevich Bout,” “Victor But,” “Viktor Butt,” “Viktor Bulakin” and “Vadim Markovich Aminov” – is thought to have been the inspiration for the arms-dealer character played by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 movie “Lord of War.”
It is not the most random of swaps at the most unlikely of times, but perhaps the intense pressure of this moment was the reason why the exchange of a US basketball star for a Russian arms dealer happened now.
Political pressure on both sides reversed the imbalance. The Biden administration would begin negotiations with the Kremlin at the worst point of US- Russian relations since the end of the Cold War because of her innocence and the fact that she was a pawn in the tug of war between the two countries.
I interviewed Bout in 2009 after months of negotiations while he was imprisoned in Bangkok. He has personal relationships with a lot of political characters, but he is polyglot, so he always talks about them.
I have seen video of him in theCongo and across Africa, where he was in close proximity to conflicts. He is accused of proliferation of small arms in that area during the 90s and early 2000s, which he denied. There were accusations he even armed al Qaeda, which he also denied. There was little he was not accused of doing, and few things he didn’t deny. He became a bogeyman of sorts, and the focus of a film starring Nicolas Cage called “Lord of War.”
That is the career history: the reputation as the man who became known as the “Merchant of Death.” What he spent 14 years in jail for, and was extradited to the United States over, was a complex sting by the US Drug Enforcement Agency, in which he was duped into agreeing to supply weapons to US agents pretending to be Colombian terrorists – weapons intended in the sting to kill Americans. It is strange that after all the crimes Bout was accused of, he was sentenced to jail for a conspiracy.
For sure, he is a pilot and an entrepreneur. He was a military translator and has a Soviet past. But there are allegations he worked in Russian intelligence and became an asset for them in the supply of weapons around the world to bolster Moscow’s geopolitical aims. There were suggestions too that he had served alongside senior Russians who are now close to President Vladimir Putin. This might have made the Americans want him so much. He was never a nobody.
There was always a fascination with Bout and his people. He would say that he was innocent of everything. But also yes, he had had an interesting life. There was always the wink-wink you often get when someone knows there is more to a story than is being said openly.
The bigger surprise is how Putin ends his diplomatic term during a Russian invasion of Ukraine and threatens a diplomatic deal with the Kremidov-Kuzmin regime
The larger surprise today is how this exchange happened during the Russian invasion and brutalizing of Ukraine. It says two things: that Moscow and Washington are able to do business even as Russian bombs kill innocent Ukrainian civilians, and the United States provides arms to Ukraine that are killing Russian soldiers, and that nuclear powers can work on other thorny issues while bullets are flying. This is a positive thing for everyone. It means some cool heads prevail, and basic interests win out.
It also shows some weakness on the side of Putin. At a time when he is loudly flaunting Nuclear rhetoric against the west, he is also agreeing to a high-profile diplomatic deal to get back a figure of outsized importance.
He is an important figure in the Russian elite, even though many ordinary Russians may not have heard of him. He is not a person Moscow would want to have around, even if it were possible for them to say he was not someone they would approve of.