CNN
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This is the most uneven swap at the most unlikely time, but perhaps the intense pressure of this moment US Basketball Star for Russian Arms Dealer It has become now.
On the surface, Britney Griner When Victor Bout Accused of a ridiculous variety of crimes. Griner was sent to a Russian penal colony for possessing a gram of cannabis oil. Bout is said to have been the most prolific arms dealer in decades, sparking conflicts in Africa and beyond.
However, circumstances and political pressure on both sides have reversed this imbalance. Griner, based on her claims of innocence and her blatant seizure of her as a geopolitical pawn on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has gained prominence for Americans and pushed the Biden administration to the worst point in U.S.-Russia relations. ordered to start negotiations with the Kremlin at least since the end of the Cold War.
The match’s extraordinary importance to Russia has always been the bigger puzzle. Who is this man who denies everything?
In 2009, I interviewed Bout after months of negotiations while he was imprisoned in Bangkok. He is multilingual, talkative, charming, and can endlessly rave about lists of politicians with whom he has personal relationships around the world.
I have seen Bout videos in Congo and Africa. He has been accused by multiple analysts and a United Nations investigation of the proliferation of small arms across the African continent during the 1990s and his early 2000s, an accusation he denies. There were accusations that he even armed al-Qaeda, which he also denied. He became a kind of bogeyman and was the focus of the Nicolas Cage-starring movie The Lord of War. have become.
That’s his career, his reputation as a man called “The Merchant of Death”. He spent his 14 years in prison and was extradited to the U.S. in a complicated undercover operation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, agreeing to supply weapons to U.S. agents posing as terrorists in Colombia. I was tricked into doing it. Undercover to kill an American. After all the crimes Bout was accused of, it’s strange that it was a conspiracy, a plot rather than an act, that got him imprisoned.
Indeed, he is a pilot and an entrepreneur. He was a military translator with a Soviet past. However, there are claims that he worked for the Russian intelligence services and became their asset to supply weapons around the world to bolster Moscow’s geopolitical objectives. There were also suggestions that he was working with close Russian officials. This may explain the intensity with which the Americans sought him.
There was always a strange mystique about Bout and his entourage. Yes, he was innocent, of all he would say. But yes, he lived an interesting life. You always had a wink-wink when someone knew there was more to the story than was openly said.
The bigger surprise today is how this exchange took place between Russian aggression and Ukrainian atrocities. The U.S. can arm Ukraine killing Russian soldiers, and the nuclear powers can tackle other thorny problems while the bullets are in flight. This is good for everyone on earth. This means that some cool minds win and the basic good wins.
It also shows weaknesses on Putin’s part. As he flaunts his hawkish nuclear rhetoric against the West, he also seeks attention to regain a figure of outsized and complex importance to Russia’s elite, intelligence services, and national pride. We have agreed to a diplomatic agreement to collect
This is a man many ordinary Russians may have heard of, and he is certainly of mythological importance to the Russian elite. To paraphrase the ugly slogan of Russian aggression left behind, he is not the kind of person Moscow would “leave behind.”
These are the people Putin now wants to do favors for. Many believe that Bout had close ties with members of the Russian elite now close to Putin when he was serving in Africa (although Bout also denies this). Was this why the US spent such time and money to detain him? Did they think he would change? we may never know.
Yes, it’s a victory for Putin, but at the cost of exposing his weaknesses and the need to maintain the military elite he depends on for satisfaction.
Correction: This article has been updated to correct the number of years Bout spent in prison after the 2008 DEA sting operation.