Reviled and respected Russian arms dealer is back in the spotlight OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
MOSCOW (AP) – A Russian arms dealer labeled “Merchant of Death” who once inspired a Hollywood movie is back in the headlines with speculation about returning to Moscow in a prisoner swap.
Indeed, if Viktor Bout, 55, is eventually released in exchange for WBNA star Brittney Griner and former US Marine Paul Whelan, as some published reports suggest, it would add to the knowledge of a charismatic arms dealer the US has imprisoned for more than a decade. has put.
Depending on the source, Bout is either a reckless businessman wrongfully imprisoned after an overly aggressive US covert operation, or a gun peddler whose sale sparked some of the world’s worst conflicts.
Nicolas Cage’s 2005 film “Lord of War” was loosely based on Bout, a former Soviet Air Force officer who rose to fame supplying weapons for civil wars in South America, the Middle East, and Africa. His clients included Charles Taylor of Liberia, longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and both sides of Angola’s civil war.
Shira A. Scheindlin, the former New York City federal judge who convicted Bout before returning to private law practice, can be counted among those who wouldn’t be disappointed by Bout’s freedom in a prisoner swap.
“He has 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 reportedly speaks six languages, has spent more than 11 years in US prisons.
He was convicted in 2011 on terrorism charges. Prosecutors said he was willing to sell up to $20 million worth of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, to shoot down US helicopters. When they made the claim during his 2012 sentencing, Bout yelled, “It’s a lie!”
Bolt has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence, saying that he is a legitimate businessman and has not sold any weapons. He has had strong support from senior Russian officials since he was first arrested. A Russian MP testified when Bout fought Thailand’s extradition to the US
Last year, some of his paintings were exhibited in the Russian Civil Chamber, the body that oversees design legislation and civil rights.
Bouts’s case fits well with Moscow’s narrative that Washington lies in wait to trap and oppress innocent Russians on flimsy grounds.
“A real ‘hunt’ has unfolded from the resonating Bout case by Americans for Russian citizens around the world,” the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote last year.
Russia has increasingly cited its case as a human rights issue. His wife and attorney claimed his health is deteriorating in the harsh prison environment where foreigners don’t always qualify for the breaks Americans might get.
Last month, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said: “We sincerely hope that our compatriot Viktor Bout will return to his homeland.”
Moskalkova said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Public Prosecution Service and the Ministry of Justice were investigating whether Bout would be eligible for a transfer to Russia to serve the rest of his sentence.
“We are also in constant dialogue to find a compromise to solve this problem,” she said.
Bolt is now held in a medium-security facility in Marion, Illinois, and is expected to be released in August 2029.
“If you were to ask me today, ‘Do you think 10 years would be a reasonable sentence,’ I would say ‘yes,'” said Scheindlin.
“He got a hard deal,” the retired judge said, noting that the US sting agents were “putting words in his mouth” so that he would say he was aware that Americans could die from guns he sold. to demand a terrorism enhancement that would force a long prison term, if not a life sentence.
“The idea of trading him should not be unacceptable to our government. It wouldn’t be wrong to release him,” Scheindlin said.
Still, she said an even exchange of Griner for Bout would be “disturbing.” The WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist was arrested in February at a Moscow airport, where police said she found cannabis oil in a vape canister in her luggage. While the US government has classified her as “wrongly detained,” Griner pleaded guilty to drug possession during her trial in a Russian court on July 7. Her trial will resume on Thursday.
Scheindlin said Griner was arrested for something that “wouldn’t carry a five-minute jail sentence.”
That feeling is shared by others. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said in a July 9 editorial that Bout has illegally traded billions of dollars in weapons “to fuel wars around the world” and “has the blood of thousands on his hands,” while Griner “has a stupid made a mistake with a small amount of cannabis. She didn’t hurt anyone.”
Griner could face up to 10 years in prison. Her admission of guilt was not unforeseen by those who understand that similar movements often precede the exchange of prisoners. Whelan was arrested three years ago on charges of espionage that the US believed was fabricated and false.
In April 2012, Scheindlin imposed the mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years that Bout is now serving, but said she only did so because it was mandatory.
At the time, his attorney claimed that the US was vengefully targeting Bout because they were ashamed that his companies helped deliver supplies to US military contractors involved in the Iraq War.
The deliveries took place despite United Nations sanctions against Bout since 2001 due to his reputation as a notorious illegal arms dealer.
Prosecutors had urged Scheindlin to serve a life sentence, saying that if Bout was right in calling himself nothing more than a businessman, “he was a businessman of the most dangerous order.”
Bout was valued at about $6 billion in March 2008 when he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. US authorities tricked him into leaving Russia for what he believed 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 luxury hotel in Bangkok after conversations with Drug Enforcement Administration informants posing as officials of Colombia’s Revolutionary Armed Forces, 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 nickname ‘Merchant of Death’ was attached to Bout by a high-ranking minister of the British Foreign Office. The nickname was included in the indictment of Bout by the US government.
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Neumeister reported from New York.