Russian Arms Dealer Viktor Bout, Released in Prisoner Swap, Reportedly Returns to Arms Dealing.
Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, also known as the “Merchant of Death,” has reportedly returned to arms dealing two years after President Joe Biden’s prisoner swap with Russia. The swap involved trading Bout for WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Bout was sentenced to 25 years in a US prison for his involvement in illegal arms trade, but the Biden administration offered him in exchange for Griner in 2022. At the time, some criticized the swap, fearing that Bout’s crimes were too great for warranting his release. However, the Biden administration defended the move by stating that Bout posed no further security risk to the United States.
Samuel Ramani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told The Hill that Bout could potentially become “a threat down the line.” John Hardie, deputy director of the Russia Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, expressed concern that the swap could further embolden Russia and other governments to take Americans hostage in order to free more prisoners.
According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, Bout may have returned to his former profession by brokering the sale of small arms to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants. When Houthi emissaries visited Moscow in August to negotiate the purchase of $10 million worth of automatic weapons, they reportedly encountered Viktor Bout.
The potential arms transfers have not yet been delivered and fall short of the sale of Russian antiship or anti-air missiles that could pose a significant threat to US military efforts to protect international shipping from Houthi attacks. The Biden administration has been worried about Russia possibly providing such advanced weapons to the Houthis in retaliation for Washington’s support of Ukraine, but there is no evidence to suggest these missiles have been sent or that Bout is involved in such a deal.
Steve Zissou, a New York attorney who represented Bout in the US, told the outlet, “Bout has not been in the transportation business for over twenty years.” He also argued that if the Russian government authorized Bout to facilitate the transfer of arms to one of America’s adversaries, it would be no different than the US government sending arms and weapons of mass destruction to one of Russia’s adversaries, as it has done with Ukraine.