Freed Russian arms dealer supports Vladimir Putin’s offensive in Ukraine
Freed in an exchange with Washington for American basketball player Brittney Griner, Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout on Saturday supported Vladimir Putin and the offensive in Ukraine. “I am proud to be Russian, and our president is Putin”said in an interview with Russian media RT this 55-year-old former Soviet army officer, who says he supports “fully” the Kremlin-led attack in Ukraine.
“If I had the opportunity and the necessary skills, I would volunteer [pour combattre en Ukraine] »he said, saying don’t ” not understand “ why the massive Moscow offensive had not taken place as early as 2014.
He again presented himself as a businessman who was working legally.
The person concerned has also denied having sold weapons to the Taliban, as accused by articles in the American press. “The Taliban had put a price on my head. So how can I say that I collaborated with them? That does not make sense “, he assured. Finally, he accused the West of encouraging “a suicide of civilization” with “Drugs, LGBTQ+” – a rhetoric regularly used by the Russian government.
Born, according to a United Nations report, in 1967 in Dushanbe, capital of the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan, Viktor Bout studied at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow, before entering the army of the ‘air. He was able, from 1991 and the fall of the USSR, according to his accusers, to acquire at a low price a quantity of armaments on military bases in the former USSR, then in full chaos, and resell them in several conflict zones, in Africa for example. His possible links with the Russian services are not known.