The United States has released Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for Basketball star Brittney Griner, who was imprisoned in Russia. Bout, who was once the most sought after person in the world, was known as the 'Merchant of Death'.
His name is Victor Bout, nicknamed "Merchant of Death"
From a lieutenant in the Soviet army, he turned into an international arms dealer. He sold weapons to both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. He was one of the most wanted persons in the world, with numerous arrest warrants for a period. He was imprisoned in the United States for 12 years.
The story of Victor Bout, whom the Americans describe as the "Bill Gates of arms smuggling", is quite interesting. So much so that his story was even made the subject of a movie in Hollywood. The script of the 2005 movie "Lord of War", "God of War" starring Nicholas Cage, was inspired by the life of Bout.
Viktor Anatolyevich Bout (born 13 January 1967) is a Russian arms dealer. An entrepreneur and former Soviet military translator, he used his multiple companies to smuggle weapons since the collapse of the Soviet Union from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. Bout gained the nicknames the Merchant of Death and Sanctions Buster after British government minister Peter Hain read a report to the United Nations in 2003 on Bout's wide-reaching operations, extensive clientele, and willingness to bypass embargoes.
Little is known about Bout's childhood and youth. It is claimed that he was born in 1967 in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.
Bout studied translation at the Soviet Military Institute in Moscow. In the late 80s he worked as a translator in the Soviet army in Angola.
Bout, who is alleged to speak 6 languages, is thought to have worked for the Russian intelligence service GRU while in Angola. Being the subject of a trade strengthens the possibility of a secret service connection.
Bout's attention was drawn to the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. He had a great opportunity for arms smuggling. It had access to a large fleet of Soviet aircraft and a huge stockpile of weapons. He sold weapons to both states and organizations from Sierra Leone to Liberia, from Congo to the Philippines.
Speaking to Channel 4 in the UK in 2009, Bout denied any involvement with al-Qaeda and the Taliban. However, in the mid-1990s he admitted to carrying weapons to Afghanistan. At that time, a significant part of the country was under Taliban control. Bout, on the other hand, stated that the weapons went to the tribes fighting against the Taliban and the commanders of these groups.
Bout, after the genocide committed in Rwanda, helped to transport the supplies from France to the country; He also said that he took the United Nations Peacekeeping Force soldiers to Rwanda.
Bout, who left Belgium, where he lived at that time when a warrant for his arrest was issued in 2002, was seen in Russia in 2003.
That same year, British Foreign Secretary Peter Hain nicknamed Bout the "Merchant of Death".
The USA took many steps during the 2000s, such as freezing its assets, but there was no legal basis for it to be prosecuted under US law.
By 2008, US agents, disguised as militants from the Colombian FARC group, contacted one of Bout's former aides. Shortly thereafter, agents began negotiating with Bout about supplying the Farc with weapons. At that time, the Thai police caught Bout red-handed and put him in prison, and a long legal process for extradition began.
Victor Bout was captured by an American operation in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, in 2008. He was trying to sell weapons to the "Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia" organization. But the person who came to bargain was an American agent. Bout got caught. He was tried in New York. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012.
Whether Bout has ties to the Russian secret service remains a mystery. His relations with the political elite in Russia are also ambiguous. It is claimed that he is appreciated and even respected in military intelligence. Although these were no more than allegations, Moscow demanded the extradition of Victor Bout from the USA. Bout is said to have kept a photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin next to him.