Viktor Bout can be swapped for Brittney Griner. Who is he?

Shortly after being convicted in 2011 of charges including conspiracy to kill an American citizen, Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout sent back a message of defiance through his attorney, even though he faced the prospect of spending decades in prison.

Mr. Bout, his lawyer speak“Believe this is not the end.”

More than a decade later, Mr. Bout, 55, may be on the verge of a fresh start even though he has served less than half of his 25-year prison sentence.

United States, trying to negotiate the release of two Americans imprisoned in Russia – basketball star Brittney Griner and former Marine, Paul Whelan – proposed exchanging them last month to Mr Bout, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday that the United States had made “an important proposal” to the Kremlin, but declined to discuss details of a possible swap and did not name Bout. . He said he expected to raise the issue in the coming days with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov.

Russian officials have been pressing Bout to return since he was convicted by a New York jury in 2011 on four counts including plotting to kill an American citizen. Prosecutors said he agreed to sell anti-aircraft weapons to drug enforcement informants, who posed as arms buyers for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

The attorney general at the time, Eric Holder, called Mr Bout (pronounced “Boot”) “one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers”. Mr. Bout became infamous among US intelligence officials, earning the nickname “The Merchant of Death” as he evaded capture for years. His feat helped inspire the 2005 film, “Lord of War,” which starred Nicolas Cage as a character created after Mr. Bout.

Now, he is perhaps the tallest Russian in US custody, and the prisoner Russia has lobbied most vigorously for his return. If he is returned to Russia, it is likely to rekindle debate about the wisdom of engaging in prisoner exchanges for Americans whom the United States considers “wrongfully detained” – as was the case with Mr. Mrs. Griner and Mr. Whelan.

In interviews with journalists, Mr. Bout has many times negative Allegedly that he worked for Russian intelligence agencies. But Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russia’s security services, said there were strong indications – Mr Bout’s education, his social and professional networks and logistical skills – that he is a member of, or at least closely associates with, the Russian military. intelligence agency, known as GRU

“That is also the position of the authorities in the US and other countries – and it explains why Russia is so,” said Mr. Galeotti, a lecturer on Russia and transnational crime at University College London. campaigned vigorously to bring him back. “All countries are trying to get their citizens out of the rough jurisdictions, but it is clear that it is a particular priority for the Russians to win back Viktor Bout.”

Mr. Bout grew up in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, until he enlisted in the Soviet army at the age of 18. After a stint in the army, he studied Portuguese at the Military Foreign Language Institute in Moscow, a popular base of Russian intelligence. and eventually became an officer in the Air Force.

The Soviet Union disintegrated shortly after Bout left the army. As the Russian economy collapsed and criminal groups flourished, he moved to the United Arab Emirates and founded a freight company that has grown to a fleet of 60 aircraft.

Prosecutors say that when military supplies from former Soviet states leaked onto the black market, his shipping empire delivered guns to rebels, militants and terrorists across the globe. around the world. In the new era of privatization in Russia, arms dealers can use old social, military and business networks from the former Soviet Union, and develop shell companies to hide their secrets. transaction.

Bout is accused of selling weapons to Al Qaeda, the Taliban and militants in Rwanda. According to some investigate and his Indictment of the United Stateshe and his associates implemented arms embargoes in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Algeria, where he sold weapons to both government forces and rebels fighting them.

His ability to avoid arrest has added to the notoriety of Western intelligence officials. In 1995, the Taliban raped one of his planes in Afghanistan, capturing the cargo and jailing the crew. Bout and Russian officials somehow managed to get the crew out of the country: In 2003, he said New York Times Magazine “They were extracted” and in 2012, New Yorkers reported, he said that they simply escaped.

US authorities finally caught him in Bangkok in 2008. Mr. Bout met with undercover Drug Enforcement Agency agents who he believed represented rebels from the Armed Forces. Revolutionary Colombia, or FARC, which the United States considers a terrorist organization. until last year.

When potential buyers told him the weapon could be used to kill the American pilot, Bout replied, “We have the same enemy,” prosecutors said.

Thai authorities arrested him on the spot. He was extradited to the United States in 2010 and two years later sentenced to 25 years.

In the years since, Russian authorities have maintained Mr. Bout’s innocence and viewed him as a possible swap for other high-profile American and Ukrainian detainees held by Russia. He is at the center of a Russian “we don’t abandon ourselves” campaign that has deemed his arrest unfair and politically motivated.

Galeotti, a Russia expert, said Bout’s exchange was a priority for Russia “a matter of honor and a matter of ruthless pragmatism”.

Russian intelligence agencies “have inherited from the former Soviet KGB a culture that makes this clear to their own spies – ‘we’ll take you back.’ That loyalty to yourself is really important when you’re expecting people to put yourself in a vulnerable position. “

On Wednesday night, Bout’s wife, Alla, told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that neither she nor her husband had heard anything about his possible exchange.

“We spoke on the phone yesterday,” she said, according to the news agency. “Of course, we assume that such negotiations can take place, but we are not talking about this, because neither he nor I have any information.”

Oleg Morozov, a member of the Russian Parliament Duma, welcomed the possibility of Mr Bout’s return.

“Viktor Bout has been illegally convicted and has been waiting for help from the Russian state for many years,” he told Ria Novosti. “If there is an opportunity to achieve his departure, then in my opinion, this opportunity should be used.”

It is unclear whether Mr. Bout’s possible return would encourage Russia to arrest tradeable Westerners; Moscow denies accusations of deliberately arresting people to force exchanges.

“The very real risk with this deal is that it encourages foreign powers,” said Lee Wolosky, a former National Security Council official in the Clinton administration who led the initial US effort. put Americans on the street and put them in jail. to arrest Mr. Bout. “And the more prominent Americans travel, the better.”

Andrei Soldatov, a Russian journalist and security services expert and senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said that while Mr Bout is the tallest Russian prisoner in the US, there are a lot of Russians in American prisons, specifically for hacking.

Russian authorities, Mr. Soldatov said, learned to “create a hostage bank” in the early 2000s during the brutal war with the Chechen breakaway, shortly after President Vladimir V Putin came to power.

“It was a lesson they never forgot,” Mr. Soldatov said. Referring to Russia’s security services, he said: “From their point of view, it makes perfect sense to do the same with the US.”

Michael Crowley and Ivan Nechepurenko contribution report.