Nicknamed the “Merchant of Death”, he was released on Thursday in a prisoner swap in Abu Dhabi involving American basketball star Brittney Griner.
“Everything is fine”Viktor Bout, a 55-year-old former arms dealer, told his family on the phone after arriving in Russia on Thursday, according to a short extract broadcast on a public television channel. “I love you very much”he said to his mother, Raïssa Bout, moved.
In a second video clip broadcast on the same Russian television channel, we could see Viktor Bout boarding a plane. The thinned face, the grizzled mustache, he had a smile on his face, a nurse taking his temperature and checking his blood pressure.
He was later greeted by his family upon his arrival in Moscow, according to footage released by the Rossiya 24 news channel. “They just woke me up in the middle of the night and told me to pack my things. There was no clear information beforehand.he said. “I got here, that’s the most important thing”.
Nicknamed the “Merchant of Death”, he was released on Thursday in a prisoner swap in Abu Dhabi involving American basketball star Brittney Griner.
“Wonderful Man”
Earlier Thursday, his mother thanked Russian President Vladimir Putin for his role in freeing her son, who was traded after lengthy negotiations between Moscow and Washington. “I am very grateful to our president, Vladimir Putin. A deep maternal bow (also) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led by Sergei Lavrov”she told Russian television.
Viktor Bout’s wife, Alla Bout, had also expressed her “acknowledgement” towards Russian diplomacy, which allowed the return of her husband who was serving a 25-year sentence in the United States. “There are also nice people” in the United States which “have not lost faith in human beings”she pointed out, quoted by Russian news agencies.
Read alsoHow Putin and Biden traded a basketball player for an arms dealer
Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatiana Moskalkova called the arms dealer a“wonderful man who became a victim of American insinuations”. For her part, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on the Telegram messaging app that the country’s diplomats receive messages of support from “people in Russia and abroad”.
Brittney Griner had been imprisoned for several months in Russia for cannabis trafficking, while Viktor Bout had been detained in the United States for more than ten years. Americans and Russians accuse each other of detaining their respective nationals for political purposes and several exchanges of prisoners have taken place in the past.
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