‘Merchant of Death’ Viktor Bout runs for political office in Russia
The convicted arms smuggler freed from a US maximum-security prison in a swap for WNBA star Brittney Griner last year is running for office in Russia.
Viktor Bout, 56, launched a campaign for a seat in the Legislative Assembly in the Ulyanovsk region of central Russia, as a member of the far-right Liberal Democratic Party, according to Russian state-owned media.
The Liberal Democratic Party is considered to be to the right of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia Party and espouses a hardline, ultranationalist ideology.
The party demands that Russia reconquer the countries of the former Soviet Union.
President Biden cut a deal with the Kremlin last December to release to Russia the so-called “Merchant of Death” in exchange for Griner, who had been imprisoned in Moscow for nearly 10 months after cannabis vape cartridges were reportedly discovered in her luggage at an airport in the Russian capital city.
The exchange was slammed by several Republicans at the time, including former President Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Bout was arrested by US federal agents in Thailand in 2008 and convicted of four counts of conspiring to kill Americans, acquiring and exporting anti-aircraft missiles, and sending material aid to a terrorist entity.
He received a 25-year prison sentence of which he served 10 years before the prisoner swap.
Michael Braun, the former chief of operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration, told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in 2010 that he considers Bout to be “one of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth.”
Bout joined the Liberal Democratic Party shortly after his release from US prison.
In a Telegram video posted a week after his release, Leonid Slutsky, the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, welcomed Bout into the ranks of the organization.
“[He is] a courageous man who has become a symbol of a struggle for principles, for spiritual and moral foundations of today’s Russia,” Slutzky said.
Bout’s foray into politics is reminiscent of ex-spy Maria Butina, who served a 15-month stint in US prison after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to act as a clandestine foreign agent.
Butina was released in 2019, returned to Russia and got involved in politics, joining the State Duma in 2021.
