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- LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The life of Viktor Bout reads like a spy thriller. Russia wants the jailed arms dealer back in Moscow and is discussing a prisoner swap with the United States that could see him exchanged for Americans imprisoned in Russia including basketball star Brittney Griner.
www.reuters.com › world › usWho is Viktor Bout, the arms dealer who could be ... - Reuters
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Mar 6, 2023 · Chumsak Kanoknan/Getty Images. By Paris L. / Updated: March 6, 2023 4:11 pm EST. With the nickname "Merchant of Death," Viktor Bout can easily be confused for a spy thriller villain. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, he is very real and very dangerous — at least prior to his prison sentence.
Dec 8, 2022 · LONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - The life of Viktor Bout reads like a spy thriller. Russia got the jailed arms dealer back from the United States on Thursday after exchanging imprisoned U.S....
- 3 min
- Felix Light
- Origins Shrouded in Mystery
- Business Over Politics
- Sting Operation
- 'Almost Certainly A Gru agent'
His notoriety was such that his life helped inspire a Hollywood film, 2005's Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov, an arms dealer loosely based on Bout. Even so, Bout'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 Afg...
A 2007 biography entitled Merchant of Death: Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible, by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, reported several details of Bout's murky trade. Reuters could not independently verify its description. From a base in the Gulf emirate of Sharjah, Bout interwove his arms trafficking empire with a seemingly innocuous lo...
During a spectacular sting operation, Bout was caught on camera agreeing to sell undercover U.S. agents, posing as representatives of Colombia's leftist FARC guerrillas, 100 surface-to-air missiles, which they would use to kill U.S. troops. Shortly afterward, he was arrested by Thai police. After more than two years of diplomatic wrangling, in whic...
In interviews, Bout has said he attended Moscow's Military Institute of Foreign Languages, which serves as a training ground for military intelligence officers. "Bout was almost certainly a GRU agent, or at least a GRU asset," said Mark Galeotti, an expert on the Russian security services at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank, referring...
Nov 18, 2022 · LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The life of Viktor Bout reads like a spy thriller. Russia wants the jailed arms dealer back in Moscow and is discussing a prisoner swap with the United States...
- 2 min
- Felix Light
Aug 5, 2022 · LONDON (Reuters) - The life of Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer jailed in the United States and linked to a possible swap for two U.S. citizens imprisoned by Moscow, sometimes reads like a...
Aug 5, 2022 · London — The life of Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer jailed in the US and linked to a possible swap for two US citizens imprisoned by Moscow, sometimes reads like a far-fetched spy...
Dec 8, 2022 · LONDON (Reuters) - The life of Viktor Bout reads like a spy thriller. Russia got the jailed arms dealer back from the United States on Thursday after exchanging imprisoned U.S. basketball...
