Bout, 55, dubbed “the merchant of death” and “the destroyer of sanctions” for his ability to circumvent arms embargoes, was one of the world’s most wanted men before his arrest in 2008 on multiple charges regarding arms trafficking. For nearly two decades, Bout became the world’s most notorious arms dealer, selling weapons to rogue states, rebel groups and murderous warlords in Africa, Asia and South America. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register His fame was such that his life helped inspire a Hollywood film, the 2005 Lord of War, starring Nicholas Cage as Yuri Orlov, an arms dealer based on Bout. Even so, Bout’s origins remained shrouded in mystery. Biographies generally agree that he was born in 1967 in Dushanbe, then the capital of Soviet Tajikistan, near the border with Afghanistan. A gifted linguist who later used his reported knowledge of English, French, Portuguese, Arabic and Persian to build his international arms empire, Bout reportedly attended the Dushanbe Esperanto Club as a young boy, becoming fluent in the artificial language. A stint in the Soviet Army followed, where Booth said he attained the rank of lieutenant, serving as a military translator, including in Angola, a country that would later become central to his business. Bout’s big breakthrough came in the days after the collapse of the communist bloc in 1989-91, cashing in on a sudden glut of discarded Soviet-era weapons to fuel a series of fratricidal civil wars in Africa, Asia and beyond. With the Soviet Union’s vast air fleet disbanding, Bout was able to acquire a squadron of some 60 ex-Soviet military aircraft based in the United Arab Emirates with which he could deliver his wares around the world.
BUSINESS ON POLITICS
A 2007 biography titled “Merchant of Death: Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible” by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun reported the following details about Bout’s shady dealings. From a base in the Gulf emirate of Sharjah, he intertwined his arms trading empire with a seemingly innocuous logistics business, always insisting when asked that he was a legitimate businessman with respectable clients and there was no way he could answer. Even so, Bout, who first appeared on the CIA’s radar amid reports of a shadowy Russian citizen dealing arms in Africa, was at the turn of the millennium one of the world’s most wanted men. But Bout, whose clients included rebel groups and militias from the Congo to Angola to Liberia, had few qualms about firm ideology, tending to put business above politics. In Afghanistan, he variously sold weapons to Islamist Taliban insurgents and their enemies in the pro-Western Northern Alliance, according to the “Merchant of Death.” It said Bout supplied arms to former Liberian President and warlord Charles Taylor, now serving a 50-year prison sentence for murder, rape and terrorism, to various Congolese factions and to the Philippine Islamist militant group Abu Sayyaf. The end didn’t come until 2008, after an elaborate sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Agency saw Bout tracked across several countries at a luxury hotel in Bangkok. During a spectacular sting operation, Bout was caught on camera agreeing to sell US secret agents posing as representatives of Colombia’s leftist FARC rebels 100 surface-to-air missiles, which they would use to kill US troops. Shortly afterwards he was arrested by the Thai police. Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout is escorted by members of a special police unit after a hearing at a criminal court in Bangkok October 5, 2010. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang/File Photo read more After two years of diplomatic wrangling during which Russia strongly insisted that Bout was innocent and his case was politically charged, Bout was extradited to the United States, where he faced a range of charges including conspiracy to support terrorists, conspiracy to kill Americans and money laundering dirty money. Bout was tried on the FARC-related charges, which he denied, and in 2012 was convicted and sentenced by a Manhattan jury to 25 years in prison, the minimum possible sentence. Since then, the Russian state wants him back.
USA WILLING TO EXCHANGE – SOURCE
On July 27, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington had made “a substantial offer” to Russia for the release of Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) star Brittney Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan. Two days later, Blinken said he had a “frank and direct conversation” with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over the phone and pressed Moscow to accept the proposal. read more Blinken declined to say what the United States offered in exchange for Griner and Whelan. A source familiar with the situation confirmed a CNN report that Washington was willing to trade Bout as part of a deal. read more Lavrov suggested to Blinken that the two sides return to calm diplomacy on the issue of prisoner exchanges “instead of throwing out speculative information,” a Russian Foreign Ministry statement said. Lavrov said Thailand’s extradition of Bout was “a flagrant injustice” and suggested he was innocent. Comments from a 2012 interview with the judge who presided over Bout’s trial in New York that the 25-year sentence was “excessive” have occasionally been picked up by Russian media seeking Bout’s repatriation. Earlier this year, speculation mounted that Booth was to be swapped for Trevor Reed, a US Marine Corps veteran jailed in Russia on assault charges. Reed was eventually released in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot jailed in the United States on drug-trafficking charges. For experts, the Russian state’s continued interest in Bhutt, as well as his skills and connections in the international arms trade, strongly suggest Russian intelligence ties. In interviews, Bout said he attended the Moscow Military Institute of Foreign Languages, which serves as a training ground for military intelligence officers. “Boutt was almost certainly a GRU agent, or at least a GRU asset,” said Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russian security services at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, referring to Russia’s military intelligence agency. “His case has become a totemic for the Russian intelligence services, which want to show that they are not abandoning their own people,” Galeotti added. According to Christopher Miller, a journalist who has corresponded with neo-Nazis imprisoned with Bout at the United States Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois, the former arms dealer keeps a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin in his cell and says he does not believe that Ukraine must exist as a state. Contacted by Reuters on the messaging service WhatsApp, Bout’s wife Alla, who lives in St Petersburg, said: “We very much hope that everything will be resolved and an agreement will be reached. “All we have to do is pray,” he added. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Reporting by Reuters Editing by Mark Heinrich Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
