By Ken DilanianNBC
News
In the 2005 Nicolas Cage film
Lord of War
, the character loosely based on Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout evades his pursuers from American law enforcement, apparently saved by the CIA.
But in real life, the US government mounted an elaborate operation in 2008 to capture and prosecute Bout, dubbed the
Merchant of Death
, because he was said to be one of the world's biggest illicit arms dealers.
["I'm terrified". Brittney Griner asks Biden for help from jail in Russia]
Now, according to his American lawyer, the Kremlin wants to exchange him for an American held in Russia, possibly basketball star Brittney Griner, who is on trial for drug possession that could carry a long sentence.
"It's really not complicated," explained Steve Zissou, who represents Bout.
The potential swap has sparked debate over whether the United States should give in to blackmail, given the disparity between the case of Bout, who was legally convicted of serious crimes, and Griner, who is facing a stacked Russian justice and is considered by officials Americans as a hostage.
Basketball player Brittney Griner appears in court before her trial in Russia
June 27, 202200:33
Zissou says it's possible that Paul Whelan, jailed in Russia since 2018 on what his family says are trumped-up espionage charges, could also figure in the deal.
[Putin spokesman says Brittney Griner is not a hostage and gives no clues about her release]
“I would accept that exchange,” explained Michael McFaul, a former US ambassador to Russia.
Under federal sentencing rules, Bout could be out of prison in five years.
Bout, 55, was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in 2012 after being convicted of selling weapons to Colombian rebels, which prosecutors said were intended to kill Americans.
Since then, the Russian government has demanded his release, claiming that he was unjustly persecuted.
Following the sentencing, Attorney General Eric Holder called Bout "one of the world's most prolific arms dealers," while the United States Attorney in Manhattan, New York, Preet Bharara, said he had been "the Number one enemy of international arms trafficking for many years, fueling some of the most violent conflicts around the world.”
Amnesty International states that he sold arms to sanctioned human rights violators in Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
[Brittney Griner appears in a Russian court for a preliminary hearing]
Russia's state news agency Tass reported in May that "talks were ongoing" between the United States and Russia to trade Bout for Griner, but no US official has confirmed this.
Russian arms smuggler Viktor Bout is led away by armed Thai police commandos upon his arrival at the criminal court in Bangkok, Thailand, on October 5, 2010.Apichart Weerawong/AP
After years of persecution by the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) caught Bout in an elaborate operation, with agents posing as Colombian rebels whom the United States had designated. as a terrorist organization.
After consummating a huge arms deal in a Bangkok hotel room, Bout said, "The gringos are enemies," according to an account of the operation in a 2012 article in The New Yorker.
"For me, it's not a business: it's my fight."
Moments later, armed officers burst through the door and arrested him.
Zissou claims that the whole operation was unfair, because Bout had been retired and living in Moscow.
[Russia extends detention of basketball star Brittney Griner]
US District Judge Shira Scheindlin, who presided over the case, agreed.
"If it were not for the approach carried out through this determined undercover operation, there is no reason to believe that Bout would have committed the imputed crimes," he indicates in the sentence, where he imposed the mandatory minimum.