Putin's 'Merchant of Death' Viktor Wants to Sell Weapons Again After US Frees Him: WSJ

Infamous arms dealer Viktor Bout has reportedly returned to his old ways less than two years after being released from US custody as part of a prisoner swap for WNBA star Brittney Griner.

The Wall Street Journal reported that when envoys from Yemen's militant Houthi movement visited Moscow in August to negotiate a $10 million arms purchase, they encountered the man known as Vladimir Putin's “Merchant of Death.” .

The polyglot former Soviet intelligence officer turned to the arms trade after the Cold War, buying up enough surplus Soviet-era military equipment to turn his arms smuggling business into a global business, bringing in hundreds of millions in revenue from sales to militant groups in Africa . Asia and America.

Be allegedly Former customers include the terrorist group Al-Qaeda and the guerrilla Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as well as Western governments. He earned the nickname “Sanctions Buster” for his ability to circumvent restrictive trade measures, and his story even inspired a mediocre 2005 Nicolas Cage film, for which a sequel is in the works (thankfully Cage didn't attempt one to put a Russian accent). ).

Bout, one of the world's most wanted men, was arrested in Thailand in 2008 by the Royal Thai Police and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. In 2012, he was sentenced in Manhattan federal court to 25 years in prison for trafficking weapons to terrorists.

Citing a European security official and others familiar with the August meeting in Moscow, the said magazine reported that the Houthis' arms purchase is a relatively small arms purchase, consisting of automatic weapons including AK-74s, which could begin delivery as early as this month under the guise of food shipments.

However, the Houthi members who visited Moscow also inquired about other weapons that Russia would be willing to sell, including anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons magazine's sources said there was no evidence that Bout was involved in these deals.

Still, even the smallest shipment will cause trouble in Washington, as the Iran-backed Houthis were placed back on the U.S. list of “global terrorists” in January.

It followed dozens of attacks by the group on commercial and commercial vessels in the Red Sea, which the Houthis said were in protest against the Israel-Hamas war, in which the US government has sent billions in weapons to Israeli forces.

The Houthis also recently claimed responsibility for attempted drone strikes on Israeli cities that were thwarted by Israeli air defenses.

Russia, that magazine As already mentioned, the country has limited its involvement in the Middle East conflict, and arming one of the warring parties would represent a significant escalation.

Bout, who said he kept a picture of Putin in his prison cell and was an ardent supporter of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, was elected to a local parliament last year.

After his release from U.S. custody, he expressed sympathy for Griner, who was sentenced by Russian authorities to nine years in a labor camp in what was seen as a deliberately harsh punishment because of the cannabis oil cartridges found in her luggage.

“Of course I feel bad or sorry for any person who is used as a pawn, regardless of whether they committed something or not,” Bout told ESPN after his release as part of the Griner prisoner swap in 2022.