Viktor Bout. Not exactly a household name, unless you happen to have been, say, an African, Middle Eastern, or almost any nationality rebel, terrorist or militant mercenary trafficking in large quantities of assault weapons, missiles and the like. Then you might have known him well, a dozen or so years ago. Because he could possibly have been your go-to guy for those weapons — though he’ll deny it, of course.

Now 56, Mr. Bout (pronounced “Boot”) was once at or near the top of the world’s “most-wanted” list, ignoring sanctions and evading capture while he and his people flew his fleet of planes around the world to deliver his deadly “goods” to his customers, thus earning him the nickname of the Merchant of Death. He was finally caught in a U.S. sting operation in Bangkok in 2008, extradited to the U.S., and convicted in 2011 on four felony charges including conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens. He was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. That’s a long fall.

But he had only served about ten years of that sentence when his luck changed. A foolish young professional basketball star, on her way to her off-season tour in Russia in February of 2022, was arrested at the airport in Moscow for transporting a small amount of cannabis oil into the country in her luggage. Her name was Brittney Griner. She was sentenced to an outrageous term of nine years to be served in a penal colony in the middle of Russia’s vast nowhere.

And here is where Viktor Bout got lucky. The details of the negotiations between the two governments have, of course, not been made public; but in December of 2022, a swap was agreed upon: a basketball player with a little bit of cannabis oil for personal use, in exchange for an arms dealer who provided weapons for terrorists and other killers.

What the hell . . . ??!!!

Now, please don’t get me wrong. I’m very happy that Ms. Griner is safely at home. She did break the law; but I think ten months is more than enough time for her to have been incarcerated for her minor offense; in fact, a fine probably would have been sufficient. The problem I’m having is trying to understand why we would release someone like Viktor Bout under any circumstances? Do we really believe he’s been rehabilitated? Is he now a harmless old man who will simply live out his remaining years in lonely seclusion? Seriously? Ms. Griner has come home to resume her life as a law-abiding, tax-paying, family-oriented citizen. Can we expect the same of Mr. Bout?

Well, let’s see. He’s only 56 years old, with presumably a good many active years to look forward to. His background is that of the worst kind of criminal. He’s been at home in Russia for eight months now. A mere four days after returning home, he became a registered member of the LDPR, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia — a party that in reality is neither liberal nor democratic. He was in attendance at the Russia-Africa Summit meeting in St. Petersburg in July, indicating that he has already resumed connections both in the Russian hierarchy and with some of his former “business” contacts in Africa. (And by the way, perhaps coincidentally, that was the same summit meeting at which the controversial Yevgeny Prigozhin was photographed in a rare, and brief, public appearance before being disposed of in a plane crash barely a month later.)

And now, Mr. Bout is running for office. What a surprise! It seems to be a popular choice among Russians who have been caught serving the Kremlin in nefarious ways in foreign lands and who later need a means of re-entering the mainstream at home. Dmitri Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi, for example, evaded capture by U.K. authorities for the fatal poisoning of Aleksandr Litvinenko in London in 2006; Maria Butina was released and deported back to Russia in 2019 after serving 14 months of an 18-month sentence in the U.S. on charges of having served as an unregistered foreign agent. Today, both Lugovoi and Butina are members of the Russian State Duma. Welcome home.

In Mr. Bout’s case, he is starting small, running for office at the regional level in Ulyanovsk, a city located on the banks of the Volga River, with no apparent claim to fame other than having been the birthplace of one Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov — better known to the world as Vladimir Lenin. Do I sense a touch of irony? Or is it, again, simply coincidence?

We shall see, as we observe the speed with which the Merchant of Death rises in the political arena of his native land. Or perhaps he will better serve the Kremlin in a different, behind-the-scenes capacity. Whatever the answer, you can be sure it will be decided and carried out at the pleasure of Tsar Putin.

And it was all made possible by a grant from the United States Government. Not, in my opinion, one of our better decisions.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
9/16/23