Inside a federal prison in Marion, Illinois, a broad-chested, mustachioed man known as “The Merchant of Death” who speaks at least six languages is in a special unit and, after building an arms-trafficking empire that spans the globe, He is serving a 25-year sentence. the world.
According to the Washington Post, 55-year-old Russian Viktor Bout is considered the world’s most famous arms dealer and stands to profit from his operations, which have fueled conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
The newspaper said the bot would be the biggest reward for Russian officials, who have protested his behavior since his arrest in Thailand in 2008 during a US Drug Enforcement Administration operation.
Thai authorities extradited Bhatt to the United States two years later, when he was charged with conspiring to kill Americans before his 2011 conviction.
CNN has revealed that the White House has offered to release Bout in exchange for the release of two Americans detained by Russia, Brittany Greener and Paul Whelan.
Despite Russia’s furor over the Bout case, many US officials and analysts believe the furor has less to do with the case than the arms dealer’s ties to Russian military intelligence.
“It’s clear that he has significant ties to Russian government agencies,” said Lee Wolosky, a National Security Council official in former President Bill Clinton’s administration who led the initial effort to counter the botnet.
Reports suggest Bout may have close ties to Igor Sechin, a former deputy prime minister of Russia and an ally of current Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sechin and Butt served with the Soviet Army in Africa in the 1980s. Butt denies any connection with Russian military intelligence. He also said that he does not know Sechin.
By 2000, Butt was one of the most notorious arms smugglers in the world. Dubbed the “merchant of death” in the British parliament, he was named in UN reports for supplying heavy weapons to a rebel movement in Angola, as well as to Charles Taylor in Liberia and then supporting a deadly civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone.
Amid mounting international pressure, including an Interpol arrest warrant issued in 2004, Bout returned to Moscow.
Simon Sarajian of Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs said Butt could not have run such a large arms-smuggling business without government support, but he never talked about it.
He added: “The Russian government is eager to restore it so that it remains as it is.”
The Russian arms dealer refused to cooperate with US authorities, even as he spent more than a decade alone in a dungeon thousands of kilometers from his homeland.
“He kept his cool in prison and, as far as I know, didn’t reveal anything to the Americans,” says Russian journalist Andrey Soldatov.
For his part, Russian security expert Mark Galeotti said the bot’s release sends a message to others who might get into trouble: “Your motherland will not forget you.”
“The successful return of the Russians (Bout) is considered a victory. Let’s face it, right now the Kremlin is looking for a victory,” he continued.
Source: Lebanon Debate
