Who Is Viktor Bout, the Arms Dealer in the Swap for Brittney Griner?

NYT WORLD: Who Is Viktor Bout, the Arms Dealer in the Swap for Brittney Griner?
By Valerie Hopkins and Alan Yuhas
Section: World
Source: New York Times
Published Date: December 8, 2022 at 02:00AM

Viktor Bout has been accused of supplying arms to Al Qaeda, the Taliban and rebels in Rwanda. His exploits helped inspire a 2005 film, “Lord of War,” that starred Nicolas Cage.

Viktor Bout, the notorious Russian gun dealer dubbed the "Merchant of Death," was released from a U.S. prison Thursday in exchange for WNBA star Brittney Griner.

Bout, 55, is a former Soviet military officer and translator who was serving a 25-year prison sentence for conspiring to kill Americans, acquiring and export anti-aircraft missiles and providing material support to a terrorist organization. Bout claimed he was innocent, and the Kremlin repeatedly dismissed the U.S. prosecution as "baseless and biased."

Russia had been trying to arrange a deal for Bout's release since his arrest in 2008. The exchange of Griner for Bout, the son of a mechanic and a bookkeeper, was completed at an airport in Abu Dhabi on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"As a result of the efforts made, we managed to agree with the American side to arrange an exchange of Viktor Bout for Brittney Griner," the ministry said in a statement. "The Russian citizen has been returned to his homeland."

Read More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/08/world/europe/viktor-bout-brittney-griner.html

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