MOSCOW (Reuters) – Former Soviet Air Force pilot Viktor Bout, who was traded for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner on Thursday, has fueled some of the world’s bloodiest conflicts by smuggling weapons on several continents.
In a career spanning two decades, which ended when he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the United States in 2012, the 55-year-old Russian allegedly stoked violence from Sierra Leone to Afghanistan by trading planes and firearms.
The mustachioed Bout, who is believed to speak six languages, traveled under various false names including ‘Boris’ and ‘Vadim Markovich Aminov’.
His notoriety inspired the Hollywood film “Lord of War”, with Nicolas Cage, in which the anti-hero escapes justice.
Expectations of a prisoner swap have grown in recent months, after Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden discussed its fate at a summit in Geneva in 2021.
CIA Director William Burns met Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR intelligence service, to discuss the exchange involving Bout in Ankara last month, in what appeared to be the highest-level talks between Moscow and Washington since Russia sent troops to Ukraine in February.
Despite US and UN sanctions, Bout had been dealing arms until he was caught in a screen-worthy sting operation in 2008.
The Russian was arrested at the five-star Sofitel hotel in Bangkok while negotiating with US agents posing as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas.
His court appearances in Thailand, wearing a bulletproof vest and leg irons as he was flanked by armed police commandos, and the often tearful responses of his wife, Alla Bout, added to the drama of the case. .
After a two-year legal battle, a Thai appeals court ruled in 2010 he could be extradited to the United States, which accused him of running a ‘massive arms trafficking business’ and terrorism .
Bout was eventually tried in the United States after leaving Bangkok on a US government plane shortly after the Thai cabinet approved his extradition.
In 2012, a US judge sentenced Bout to 25 years in prison for conspiring to sell a massive arsenal to anti-US guerrillas in Colombia.
Bout has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested in the Thai capital after allegedly agreeing to supply surface-to-air missiles in a series of secret meetings that also took him to Denmark and Romania.
US prosecutors say he agreed to the sale on the understanding that the weapons were to be used to attack US helicopters.
Former UK Foreign Secretary Peter Hain dubbed him the ‘dealer of death’, while Amnesty International has alleged he at one time operated a fleet of more than 50 planes carrying missile weapons. across Africa.
U.S. prosecutors say arms he sold or traded fueled conflicts and propped up regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan .
But Bout maintains that he always ran a legitimate air cargo business and denied allegations of involvement with al-Qaeda.
His detention angered Russia, which called the extradition attempts politically motivated.
Born in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, in 1967, while it was still under Soviet rule, Bout studied languages - including English, French and Portuguese – at the military institute of foreign languages in Moscow before to join the Air Force.
Journalist Douglas Farah, co-author of a book on Bout, called him a “unique creature” born out of the end of communism and the rise of unbridled capitalism in the early 1990s.
He has repeatedly denied allegations that he was a former KGB agent and bought weapons, planes and helicopters at scrap prices when the Soviet Union fell to supply conflict areas. .
In a career spanning two decades, which ended when he was sentenced to 25 years in prison in the United States in 2012, the 55-year-old Russian allegedly stoked violence from Sierra Leone to Afghanistan by trading planes and firearms.
The mustachioed Bout, who is believed to speak six languages, traveled under various false names including ‘Boris’ and ‘Vadim Markovich Aminov’.
His notoriety inspired the Hollywood film “Lord of War”, with Nicolas Cage, in which the anti-hero escapes justice.
Expectations of a prisoner swap have grown in recent months, after Russian leader Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden discussed its fate at a summit in Geneva in 2021.
CIA Director William Burns met Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR intelligence service, to discuss the exchange involving Bout in Ankara last month, in what appeared to be the highest-level talks between Moscow and Washington since Russia sent troops to Ukraine in February.
Despite US and UN sanctions, Bout had been dealing arms until he was caught in a screen-worthy sting operation in 2008.
The Russian was arrested at the five-star Sofitel hotel in Bangkok while negotiating with US agents posing as Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas.
His court appearances in Thailand, wearing a bulletproof vest and leg irons as he was flanked by armed police commandos, and the often tearful responses of his wife, Alla Bout, added to the drama of the case. .
After a two-year legal battle, a Thai appeals court ruled in 2010 he could be extradited to the United States, which accused him of running a ‘massive arms trafficking business’ and terrorism .
Bout was eventually tried in the United States after leaving Bangkok on a US government plane shortly after the Thai cabinet approved his extradition.
In 2012, a US judge sentenced Bout to 25 years in prison for conspiring to sell a massive arsenal to anti-US guerrillas in Colombia.
Bout has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested in the Thai capital after allegedly agreeing to supply surface-to-air missiles in a series of secret meetings that also took him to Denmark and Romania.
US prosecutors say he agreed to the sale on the understanding that the weapons were to be used to attack US helicopters.
Former UK Foreign Secretary Peter Hain dubbed him the ‘dealer of death’, while Amnesty International has alleged he at one time operated a fleet of more than 50 planes carrying missile weapons. across Africa.
U.S. prosecutors say arms he sold or traded fueled conflicts and propped up regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan .
But Bout maintains that he always ran a legitimate air cargo business and denied allegations of involvement with al-Qaeda.
His detention angered Russia, which called the extradition attempts politically motivated.
Born in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, in 1967, while it was still under Soviet rule, Bout studied languages - including English, French and Portuguese – at the military institute of foreign languages in Moscow before to join the Air Force.
Journalist Douglas Farah, co-author of a book on Bout, called him a “unique creature” born out of the end of communism and the rise of unbridled capitalism in the early 1990s.
He has repeatedly denied allegations that he was a former KGB agent and bought weapons, planes and helicopters at scrap prices when the Soviet Union fell to supply conflict areas. .
