The release of Viktor Bot, the Russian arms dealer who was returned in exchange for the release of the American basketball player (Reuters)
In a prisoner exchange deal, Viktor Bott, who was called the "dealer of death" was released today (Thursday) in exchange for the release of the American basketball player Brittany Greiner from the Russian prison nine months after she was arrested at the airport in Moscow with cannabis oil in her personal bag and will return to the United States.
The 55-year-old Bout, who was also nicknamed the "sanctions buster" due to his ability to circumvent arms embargoes, was one of the most wanted in the world before his arrest in 2008 by the United States on several charges related to arms trafficking.
For nearly two decades, he became the world's most notorious arms dealer, selling weapons to countries, rebel groups and murderous military leaders in Africa, Asia and South America.
His life even inspired a 2005 Hollywood film, Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov, an arms dealer loosely based on a bot.
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Among other things, he was also nicknamed the "sanctions remover" due to his ability to bypass an arms embargo.
Victor Bott (Photo: Reuters)
Despite this, Bot's origins remain shrouded in mystery.
Biographies generally agree that he was born in 1967 in Dushanbe, then the capital of Soviet Tajikistan, close to the border with Afghanistan.
Bot as a linguist used his command of English, French, Portuguese, Arabic and Persian to build his international arms empire.
He then served in the Soviet Army, where Bout said he achieved the rank of lieutenant, serving as a military translator including in Angola, a country that would later become central to his business.
Butt's big breakthrough came in the days after the collapse of the communist bloc in 1991-1989, which brought a sudden glut of Soviet-era weapons used in a series of murderous civil wars in Africa, Asia and beyond.
With the disintegration of the Soviet Union's vast air fleet, Bot even managed to acquire a squadron of about 60 old Soviet military aircraft based in the United Arab Emirates, with which he could deliver his products around the world.
He was extradited to the United States, where he faced a series of charges.
Victor Bott (Photo: Reuters)
In 2008, during a sting operation in Bangkok, Bout was caught on camera agreeing to sell surface-to-air missiles to undercover American agents posing as representatives of Colombia's leftist guerrillas, explaining that they would use them to kill American soldiers.
Shortly after, he was arrested by the Thai police.
After more than two years of diplomatic wrangling in which Russia insisted Bout was innocent and politically charged, Bout was extradited to the United States, where he faced a slew of charges, including conspiracy to support terrorists, conspiracy to kill Americans, and money laundering.
He was tried on charges related to the terrorist organization FARC, which he denied, and in 2012 he was convicted and sentenced by a Manhattan court to 25 years in prison, the minimum possible sentence.
Since then, the Russian state has been eager to get him back.
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