Here’s What To Know About Russia’s ‘Merchant Of War’ And Why He Was The Prisoner Exchanged For Brittney Griner

Topline

U.S. officials released convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in their prisoner swap for WNBA star Brittney Griner Thursday morning, returning the man known as the “Merchant of Death” to Russia who has had a long history of arms trades with among the most dangerous people in the world.

Russian officials exchanged WNBA star Brittney for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout.

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Key Facts

Bout, a former Soviet military officer who had gained a reputation as the world’s biggest arms dealer, was arrested in a U.S.-led sting operation in 2008 in Thailand, leading to his extradition in 2010 and his conviction in New York federal court one year later for conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons illegally to the Colombian terror group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia (FARC).

He was convicted in 2011 of conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to acquire and export anti-aircraft missiles and conspiring to providing support to a Colombian terrorist organization, and was sentenced in 2012 to 25 years in federal prison—Bout has claimed he was innocent.

Bout, a 55-year-old born in Soviet Tajikistan who has spent the past 11 years in an Illinois penitentiary, had been known as “international arms trafficking enemy number one,” according to former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, speaking at Bout’s sentencing hearing in 2012.

Russian officials have been pushing for a Bout return for over a decade, with Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aleksandr Lukashevich alleging his extradition was illegal and that the U.S. had been holding him in “unjustifiably cruel conditions.”

Bout is also believed to have knowledge on the whereabouts of former Soviet weapons, the Washington Post reported—he has been accused of supplying former Soviet weapons to militias and terrorist organizations, including in Sierra Leone and Colombia, to the Taliban in Afghanistan, as well as Liberia’s brutal regime.

The Biden Administration initially offered Bout in return for Griner in May, Forbes first reported, three months after the two-time Olympic gold medalist was detained in Moscow on drug possession charges and as U.S.-Russia relations sour, as the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine extends into its ninth month and the U.S. leads the charge in providing arms and humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

Surprising Fact

Bout inspired actor Nicolas Cage’s elusive international arms dealing character Yuri Orlov in the 2005 film, “Lord of War.” His rise to fame as an arms dealer who notoriously evaded arrest and traveled with multiple passports, was also the subject of a 2007 biography, “Merchant of Death.”

Key Background

Griner pleaded guilty to drug charges in July, although the WNBA star, who plays professional basketball in Russia during the WNBA offseason, said she had no intention of breaking Russian law when she carried a cannabis vaporizer cartridge through a Moscow airport. She was sentenced in August to nine years in a prison colony, prompting White House officials, who considered Griner wrongfully imprisoned, to launch negotiations into a prison swap. Those negotiations included both Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who was sentenced to 16 years in Russian prison on spying charges, which he’s also denied. Although the talks initially seemed to be progressing, they fell to the wayside for months, even after President Joe Biden met with Griner’s wife, and pledged to seek “every possible avenue” to bring Griner and Whelan home. The Kremlin reportedly sought to include convicted murderer and former Russian spy Vadim Krasikov in the negotiations, although White House National Security Council coordinator John Kirby denounced that bid as a “bad faith attempt” by Russian officials. In October, former United Nations ambassador Bill Richardson, who had traveled to Russia to conduct his own negotiations without White House authority, predicted Griner and Whelan could be released by the end of the year.

Tangent

The prisoner exchange left out Whelan, who is now the only American imprisoned in Russia, even though the State Department has declared him wrongfully detained. Speaking to Forbes in May, retired federal judge Shira Scheindlin—who presided over Bout’s trial—said a two-for-one swap including Griner and Whelan would provide “some moral equivalency” and that a one-for-one deal exchanging a convicted arms dealer for someone who was arrested on what would “probably only be a fine in the U.S.” was problematic.

Crucial Quote

Biden said he spoke with Griner in a tweet on Thursday, saying: “She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home.”