Who is Viktor Bout? Why was Russia adamant about exchanging Brittney Griner with a WAR CRIMINAL?
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Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout
Probably the most searched person on the internet would be Viktor Bout as he gets prison-swapped with WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday morning. The 55-year-old, who is popularly known as the ‘Merchant of Death,’ has drawn a warm welcome from Russia, as he ended his 25-year prison sentence in the States with a high-profile twist.
To bring everyone on the same page – Viktor Bout is a former Soviet Military Officer and Translator who was imprisoned for conspiring to kill huge volumes of people in the States, acquiring and exporting anti-aircraft missiles, and also providing material support to a terrorist organization. Even when he was sentenced to 25 years, Bout was firm in claiming his innocence and repeatedly dismissed the US prosecution as ‘biased and baseless.’
Interestingly, Bout, who had been held at the US Penitentiary Marion, a medium security federal prison in Illinois, is not from a violence-based background. Rather he is the son of a mechanic and a bookkeeper.
Perhaps if you’re not aware Viktor inspired a role in “Lord of War”, a film released in 20005 wherein Nicholas Cage plays international gun dealer Yuri Orlov, whose character is loosely based on the Merchant of Death. The spoken-off movie drew a gloomy thumbs-up from Amnesty International.
Why did Russia desperately want Viktor Bout in exchange of Brittney Griner
Aleksander Golts, who is a military analyst, stated that there could be a possible couple of theories on why Russia was so adamant about getting its hands on Viktor Bout.
He mentioned, as per Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, “The first option is that Bout really does know something; his intrigues or his attempts to create intrigues with weaponry were based either on the support of some Russian state structures or of some highly placed people.”
In simpler terms, Golts meant that Viktor Bout could have been acting in the interest of Russian officials. Again, this may ultimately prove problematic for anyone who’s had dealings with Bout.
That being said, this is a theory, but seeing as Bout’s weaponry has been tied to numerous global conflicts in strategic areas of interest (having armed Mobutu in Zaire and Savimbi in Angola even Taliban and Hezbollah), it is well possible.
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Yakshpat Bhargava
(3989 Articles Published)