Who is Viktor Bout, the ‘Merchant of Death’, swapped for US basketball star Brittney Griner?

It’s been dubbed the ‘most uneven of swaps’. But the United States and Russia have exchanged jailed American basketball star Brittney Griner for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout. Both are accused of crimes but they are extremely different. Griner was sentenced to a Russian penal colony for possessing cannabis oil – a single gramme of it. Bout was held in a US prison for 12 years for fuelling some of the world’s worst conflicts. Outside Russia, he is known as the “Merchant of Death”. In his own country, he is seen as a businessman who was unjustly imprisoned in the US. Bout has now arrived in Moscow. He was seen deplaning, carrying a bouquet and was welcomed by his mother and wife. In July, the US proposed a prisoner exchange, being aware that Moscow had long sought Bout’s release. We take a closer look at the many crimes of Bout and what his release means for Russia. Who is Viktor Bout? Depending on whom you ask, the 55-year-old Viktor Bout is a swashbuckling businessman unjustly imprisoned after an overly aggressive US sting operation or a peddler of weapons whose sales fuelled some of the world’s worst conflicts leading to his ‘Merchant of Death’ moniker. Now that Bout is released, it will only add to the Russian lore around the ‘charismatic’ arms dealer the US has imprisoned for over a decade. The 2005 Nicolas Cage movie, “Lord of War” was loosely based on Bout, a former Soviet air force officer who gained fame supposedly by supplying weapons for civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa. His clients were said to include Liberia’s Charles Taylor, long-time Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and both sides in Angola’s civil war. [caption id=“attachment_11777871” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] In this image taken from a video provided by the RU-24 Russian Television on 9 December, Russian citizen Viktor Bout, who was exchanged for US basketball player Brittney Griner, boards a plane after a swap, in the airport of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. AP[/caption] Russian officials had long pushed for the release of Bout, who was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US after being convicted in 2011 of a conspiracy to kill Americans, conspiracy to deliver anti-aircraft missiles, and aiding a terrorist organisation, Fox News reported.

Bout has claimed he’s a legitimate businessman.

He was held in a medium-security facility in Marion, Illinois and had it not been for the prisoner swap he would be released in August 2029. How was Bout arrested? Bout was estimated to be worth about $6 billion in March 2008 when he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. US authorities tricked him into leaving Russia for what he thought was a meeting over a business deal to ship what prosecutors described as “a breathtaking arsenal of weapons — including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles, machine guns and sniper rifles — 10 million rounds of ammunition and five tons of plastic explosives”. He was taken into custody at a Bangkok luxury hotel after conversations with the Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation’s informants who posed as officials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC. The group had been classified by Washington as a narco-terrorist group. He was brought to the US in November 2010. The “Merchant of Death” moniker was attached to Bout by a high-ranking minister of Britain’s Foreign Office. The nickname was included in the US government’s indictment of Bout. He was convicted in 2011 on terrorism charges. Prosecutors said he was ready to sell up to $20 million in weapons, including surface-to-air missiles to shoot down US helicopters. When they made the claim at his 2012 sentencing, Bout shouted: “It’s a lie!” Shira A Scheindlin, the former New York City federal judge who sentenced Bout before returning to private law practice, can be counted among those who would not be disappointed by Bout’s freedom in a prisoner exchange. He’s done enough time for what he did in this case,” Scheindlin said in an interview, noting that Bout, a vegetarian and classical music fan who is said to speak six languages, has served over 11 years in US prisons. If you asked me today: ‘Do you think 10 years would be a fair sentence,’ I would say ‘yes,’” Scheindlin said. “He got a hard deal,” the retired judge said, noting the US sting operatives “put words in his mouth” so he’d say he was aware Americans could die from weapons he sold in order to require a terrorism enhancement that would force a long prison sentence, if not a life term. “The idea of trading him shouldn’t be unacceptable to our government. It wouldn’t be wrong to release him,” Scheindlin said. But some disagree. Former US Defence Intelligence Agency officer Rebekah Koffler told Fox News Bout is a “high-value asset”. “Moscow wants him back because he possesses critical insights that he can share with the GRU, his former agency,” Koffler said. “Having been in a US prison and interrogated by US officials, he knows what our intelligence requirements are and other information that is valuable for the Russians. “It would be a big mistake for the US to give up Viktor Bout, as much as one feels compassion for Griner and [Paul] Whelan.” The US Marine veteran was sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison in 2020 on espionage charges that Washington says are false What Bout’s release means for Russia Bout’s case fits well into Moscow’s narrative that Washington is lying in wait to trap and oppress innocent Russians on flimsy grounds.

A Russian parliament member testified when Bout was fighting extradition from Thailand to the US

Last year, some of his paintings were displayed in Russia’s Civic Chamber, the body that oversees draft legislation and civil rights. [caption id=“attachment_10884311” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Bout’s release shows the weakness of Russian president Vladimir Putin in some ways. AP[/caption] “From the resonant Bout case a real ‘hunt’ by Americans for Russian citizens around the world has unfolded,” the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote last year. Increasingly, Russia has cited his case as a human rights issue. His wife and lawyer claimed his health is deteriorating in the harsh prison environment where foreigners are not always eligible for breaks that Americans might receive. Earlier this year, Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said: “We very much hope that our compatriot Viktor Bout will return to his homeland.” Bout’s release as Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine is unnerving. A CNN report says that the exchange proves US and Russia can do business even when they are on two different sides of the conflict. “This is a good thing for everyone on the planet. It means some cool heads prevail, and basic interests win out”. However, it also points to Putin’s weakness and his need to keep the “military elite in Russia content“. Have there been other prisoner swaps? The United States and Russia already engaged in one prisoner swap in the heat of the Ukrainian war. In April, Washington exchanged former US Marine Trevor Reed for convicted drug smuggler Konstantin Yaroshenko. President Joe Biden was under pressure to free Griner, who faced up to 10 years in prison and whose wife earlier accused the administration of doing too little to help. However, now questions arise about Whelan’s release. A security official at an auto parts company, he was arrested in Moscow in December 2018 and in 2020 sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage, which he denies. On Thursday, US officials said that they did not choose to free Griner at the expense of the former Marine and that they will continue to push for his release, reports Al Jazeera. “While we have not yet succeeded in securing [Whelan’s] release, we are not giving up. We will never give up,” US President Joe Biden said. “We remain in close touch with [his] family, the Whelan family, and my thoughts and prayers are with them today.” Who is Griner? Griner, a two-time Olympic basketball gold medallist and Women’s NBA champion who had played in Russia, was detained just days before Moscow launched its offensive. [caption id=“attachment_11017191” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] American basketball star Brittney Griner was arrested for the possession of cannabis oil. AP[/caption] She has pleaded guilty to drug charges over possessing vape cartridges with cannabis oil. Speaking at her trial in Khimki, just outside Moscow, Griner said she still did not know how the cartridges ended up in her bag and had no intention to use them. “I did not think of or plan to bring banned substances into Russia,” said Griner, wearing a Phoenix Mercury T-shirt and black basketball trousers. “I did not intend to break Russian law,” she added, saying that she was in a rush packing and tired after a recovery from COVID. I wouldn’t do anything that would hurt my team.” With inputs from agencies