CNN reported on Wednesday that the Biden administration offered the Kremlin the release of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bot, who is serving a 25-year sentence for transferring weapons to rebellious organizations around the world, in exchange for American basketball player Brittany Greiner and American Paul Whelan, who was arrested a few years ago in Moscow on espionage charges.
As you may remember, Greiner has been held in Moscow for several months on the claim that she possessed marijuana, but in the West this is seen as a defiant step towards the West because of the sanctions on Russia.
"We have submitted a significant proposal that we believe can be successful considering the talks we had with the Russians," a senior administration official told CNN.
"We submitted the proposal a few weeks ago," he added.
Bout, who is considered close to the Kremlin, was convicted in the US about a decade ago of ties to terrorist organizations. Suspicions included transfers to Islamic and other terrorist organizations, including the Taliban. According to a report in the "Guardian," the weapons network, and perhaps he himself, had ties to Hezbollah and also to various terrorist organizations in Africa and in Latin America, including FARC. Among other things, it is claimed that the terrorists who tried to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane that took off from Mombasa in 2002 got their weapons from his network.
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