In the five months since the February detention of WNBA player Brittney Griner in Russia, the Biden administration has fallen woefully short of its obligation to secure her unconditional release. With Griner now caught in a judicial process in which her guilt and sentence be determined not by the facts of her case, but by calculations in the Kremlin, the White House has proposed to swap Griner and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine also held by Moscow, for convicted arms dealer and war crime abettor Viktor Bout.
Whether through neglect, discrimination, or ineffectiveness, the Biden administration is right to be course correcting for its initial ineffectiveness, and securing Griner and Whelan’s freedom should remain a top priority. But while the political calculations of a trade for Griner and Whelan’s release is best left to those in government, it is important to consider the perhaps forgotten story of Victor Bout, the man the Russians want back.
A Russian national, Bout became the poster child for illicit arms smugglers that poured weaponry into the most gruesome, violent, and inhumane conflicts of the late 20th century. Co-opting the vast and poorly secured stockpiles of arms leftover from the USSR’s collapse, Bout came to command an industrial-level illicit arms brokering business, made up of an assortment of front companies that, for years, allowed him to evade legal jeopardy or detention.
Bout’s career began in Afghanistan, where he provided AK-47s to the Mujahadeen, but with civil wars across the globe growing in number and severity, his business found an environment ripe for growth. In the 1990s Bout’s enterprise came to focus on the explosion of intrastate conflicts that had come to grip sub-Saharan Africa. Often selling arms to both sides of the fighting, his weapons provided the means of violence for conflicts in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Congo-Brazzaville, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Eswatini, and Uganda.
These conflicts were among the most gruesome of the post-World War II period and were rife with war crimes and crimes against humanity, many perpetrated by Bout’s loyal clients. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, for example, traded conflict diamonds for arms through Bout, funneling weapons to Sierra Leonean rebels who engaged in mass atrocities including rape, mutilation, murder, enslavement, and the use of child soldiers. Taylor is now serving a 50-year sentence in the United Kingdom for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Bout also supplied arms to the Colombian FARC, a Marxist rebel group whose conflict against Bogota became the longest-running civil war in the Western Hemisphere. In exchange for arms, Bout was paid in drugs that he then transported to Europe and beyond. His Colombian dealings would eventually lead to his capture. The effort to eventually detain Bout was a massive undertaking and required years of planning from a variety of American and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The efforts would culminate in a Drug Enforcement Agency led sting operation in Thailand, where agents posing as FARC representatives lured Bout to a Bangkok hotel room where he was detained. In 2010, he was extradited to the United States where he was eventually convicted on terrorism charges, including conspiring to kill Americans. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, which he is currently serving in Illinois.
Bout’s arrest and conviction was an important victory or international human rights and counter-arms trafficking efforts — although he was not the only arms smuggler who took advantage of the chaos of the post cold war world, he was by far the most public, outspoken, and prolific of his contemporaries. For years Bout had been able to leverage gaps in the legal nets meant to address illicit arms trafficking. He lived a very public life in Moscow and frequently enjoyed the limelight, giving interviews, and earning the name “Merchant of Death,” with his story inspiring the Nicolas Cage character in the feature film Lord of War. His eventual capture and conviction not only offered a token of justice to the thousands whose lives were forever altered by his dealings, but also sent a stark signal that there would be no impunity for weapons traffickers.
And while Bout has already served a significant portion of his sentence, records indicate his release would not otherwise occur until the end of this decade at the earliest. Furthermore, unlike being set free to his own devices in a country that, for years, shielded him from the arms of justice, Bout’s supposed 2029 release would presumably come under some kind of supervision that would extend the limitations on his freedoms and operations.
The Biden administration will have to carefully weigh the consequences of Bout’s release in exchange for U.S. citizens. Whatever happens, it seems Bout’s story may be entering its next chapter with renewed attention on his past deeds and future activities.
The Notorious Viktor Bout is Back
By Rachel Stohl • Elias Yousif
In Conventional Arms
In the five months since the February detention of WNBA player Brittney Griner in Russia, the Biden administration has fallen woefully short of its obligation to secure her unconditional release. With Griner now caught in a judicial process in which her guilt and sentence be determined not by the facts of her case, but by calculations in the Kremlin, the White House has proposed to swap Griner and Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine also held by Moscow, for convicted arms dealer and war crime abettor Viktor Bout.
Whether through neglect, discrimination, or ineffectiveness, the Biden administration is right to be course correcting for its initial ineffectiveness, and securing Griner and Whelan’s freedom should remain a top priority. But while the political calculations of a trade for Griner and Whelan’s release is best left to those in government, it is important to consider the perhaps forgotten story of Victor Bout, the man the Russians want back.
A Russian national, Bout became the poster child for illicit arms smugglers that poured weaponry into the most gruesome, violent, and inhumane conflicts of the late 20th century. Co-opting the vast and poorly secured stockpiles of arms leftover from the USSR’s collapse, Bout came to command an industrial-level illicit arms brokering business, made up of an assortment of front companies that, for years, allowed him to evade legal jeopardy or detention.
Bout’s career began in Afghanistan, where he provided AK-47s to the Mujahadeen, but with civil wars across the globe growing in number and severity, his business found an environment ripe for growth. In the 1990s Bout’s enterprise came to focus on the explosion of intrastate conflicts that had come to grip sub-Saharan Africa. Often selling arms to both sides of the fighting, his weapons provided the means of violence for conflicts in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Congo-Brazzaville, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Eswatini, and Uganda.
These conflicts were among the most gruesome of the post-World War II period and were rife with war crimes and crimes against humanity, many perpetrated by Bout’s loyal clients. Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, for example, traded conflict diamonds for arms through Bout, funneling weapons to Sierra Leonean rebels who engaged in mass atrocities including rape, mutilation, murder, enslavement, and the use of child soldiers. Taylor is now serving a 50-year sentence in the United Kingdom for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Bout also supplied arms to the Colombian FARC, a Marxist rebel group whose conflict against Bogota became the longest-running civil war in the Western Hemisphere. In exchange for arms, Bout was paid in drugs that he then transported to Europe and beyond. His Colombian dealings would eventually lead to his capture. The effort to eventually detain Bout was a massive undertaking and required years of planning from a variety of American and international law enforcement and intelligence agencies. The efforts would culminate in a Drug Enforcement Agency led sting operation in Thailand, where agents posing as FARC representatives lured Bout to a Bangkok hotel room where he was detained. In 2010, he was extradited to the United States where he was eventually convicted on terrorism charges, including conspiring to kill Americans. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison, which he is currently serving in Illinois.
Bout’s arrest and conviction was an important victory or international human rights and counter-arms trafficking efforts — although he was not the only arms smuggler who took advantage of the chaos of the post cold war world, he was by far the most public, outspoken, and prolific of his contemporaries. For years Bout had been able to leverage gaps in the legal nets meant to address illicit arms trafficking. He lived a very public life in Moscow and frequently enjoyed the limelight, giving interviews, and earning the name “Merchant of Death,” with his story inspiring the Nicolas Cage character in the feature film Lord of War. His eventual capture and conviction not only offered a token of justice to the thousands whose lives were forever altered by his dealings, but also sent a stark signal that there would be no impunity for weapons traffickers.
And while Bout has already served a significant portion of his sentence, records indicate his release would not otherwise occur until the end of this decade at the earliest. Furthermore, unlike being set free to his own devices in a country that, for years, shielded him from the arms of justice, Bout’s supposed 2029 release would presumably come under some kind of supervision that would extend the limitations on his freedoms and operations.
The Biden administration will have to carefully weigh the consequences of Bout’s release in exchange for U.S. citizens. Whatever happens, it seems Bout’s story may be entering its next chapter with renewed attention on his past deeds and future activities.
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