The life of Viktor Bout reads like a spy thriller. Russia wants the jailed arms dealer back in Moscow and is discussing a prisoner swap with the U.S. that could see him exchanged for Americans imprisoned in Russia including basketball star Brittney Griner
a prisoner swap with the United States
His notoriety was such that his life helped inspire a Hollywood film, 2005’s Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov, an arms dealer loosely based on Bout. Bout’s big breakthrough came in the days after the 1989-91 collapse of the Communist bloc, cashing in on a sudden glut of discarded Soviet era weaponry to fuel a series of fratricidal civil wars in Africa, Asia and beyond.
But Bout, whose clients included rebel groups and militias from Congo to Angola and Liberia, had little in the way of firm ideology, tending to place business above politics. During a spectacular sting operation, Bout was caught on camera agreeing to sell undercover U.S. agents posing as representatives of Colombia's leftist FARC guerrillas 100 surface-to-air missiles, which they would use to kill U.S. troops. Shortly afterwards, he was arrested by Thai police.
Sources familiar with the situation told Reuters that Washington had offered to exchange Bout for Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who in 2020 was sentenced to 16 years in jail for spying.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Bout's extradition from Thailand was "a glaring injustice" and suggested he was innocent.
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