Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer known as The Merchant of Death, is a free man. After spending 14 years in a US prison, Bout returned to his native Russia as part of a prisoner exchange involving basketball star Brittney Griner.
“I made it,” Viktor told a national television reporter after landing in Moscow. “That’s the main thing. In the middle of the night they woke me up and said ‘Gather your stuff’ and that was it.”
Bout’s mother and wife, Alla Bout, were waiting for him. By ReutersViktor came down the steps with a large bouquet of flowers before embracing his mother and Alla.
Alla tirelessly campaigned for the release of Viktor Bout from prison
Thierry Falise/Getty Images
Viktor Bout and Alla Vladimirovna met in the late 1980s in Mozambique, where he worked as a translator for the Soviet Army. Alla, a fashion designer born in Leningrad in 1970, owned clothing stores in Russia, South Africa, and Germany.
Bout and Alla were married in 1992. They welcomed their daughter, Liza, in 1994 in the United Arab Emirates.
alla said the daily beast who first heard about Viktor’s alleged terrorist activities in 2001 when the US Embassy in the United Arab Emirates denied the couple a visa. She said: “We heard that the United States doesn’t let terrorists in. I thought, if my husband is a terrorist, who are the rest?”
She told the outlet that Bout’s accounts were frozen due to a United Nations report alleging that he had violated arms embargoes in Angola. Alla said that for a few years the family lived on fashion income. She described Viktor as a proud Russian patriot:
“I have lived with this strong, fearless, patriotic man for over 20 years. I was proud of him when he organized the rescue of the crew of an Ilyshin-76 plane hijacked by the Taliban in Kandahar in 1995.”
The US government, in cooperation with Thai officials, arrested Viktor in March 2008. Prosecutors alleged that he brokered a deal to seal weapons to agents posing as the Revolutionary Armed Forces, a terrorist group. “During that recorded conversation, he said that he would like to kill Americans,” Alla admitted.
After Viktor’s conviction and arrest, he gave Alla the authority to write letters on his behalf. Alla asked the Russian Ministry of Justice to negotiate his transfer to Russia, where he would serve his sentence. She said the daily beast who expected a prisoner exchange:
“People suggested that he could be traded for Mikhail Khodorkovsky. I hope they catch all the spies in Moscow and exchange them for my husband.”
Alla’s efforts paid off when Viktor Bout returned to Russia in December 2022.
As Alla predicted, the only realistic way Viktor could return to Russia was through a prisoner exchange. His prayers came true when the US government traded Viktor for Griner.
“I have met with many of our politicians and deputies and so many letters and appeals have been written that the talks were always very positive,” Alla told Russian state media. “There was, of course, great hope that Viktor would finally have the chance to return home.”
Alla thanked everyone who helped secure Viktor’s release, including the consular departments in New York and Washington. The Russian media report showed that Alla lives in a modest and cramped apartment.
She said the daily beast that the Bout residence shows that Viktor was not the billionaire arms dealer the UN made him out to be. “Yeah [Viktor] he really built a billion-dollar fortune, as his accusers in New York claim, he would have built something like that,” he said, pointing to an Art Deco-style mansion across the street.
Alla said that Viktor planned to write a book about his time in prison.
Saeed Khan/Getty Images
Alla eased Viktor’s prison time by sending him books by his favorite authors: Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, and Rajneesh Osho. She said Viktor didn’t socialize much with other inmates, but he wasn’t having a hard time. in a letter to itar tassVictor wrote:
“Prison, as Dostoevsky wrote (if I’m not mistaken), is a mirror of society. I’ve never been to the United States before, so it would be a very distorted picture, and I hope there is another United States, but that’s just my hope.”
In September 2019, Alla and Liza visited Viktor in prison for the first time since his sentence. After the visit, Alla told him rate that Viktor had developed a schedule to help him fill his days:
“He never deviates from that, he is a strong man, he is tough, an ex-military man, he has enough willpower. He gets up, starts with yoga, then moves on to some reading followed by a little snack, then studies languages and reads again.”
Alla told the outlet that Viktor had a good relationship with the prison authorities and never clashed with other inmates. She said the absence of gang violence at the United States Penitentiary, Marion, made Viktor’s incarceration peaceful. “Viktor is reserved, he has his own program,” Alla added.
After the visit, Alla talked about Viktor’s desire to write a book on surviving in prison. “He is going to, or at least says that he is morally almost ready, to write a book,” Alla said.
Perhaps the book addresses allegations that Viktor could be a Russian secret agent, he claims Alla vehemently denies. She said the daily beast:
“During the time that I have lived with him, he has never received any money from any Russian secret ministry or service. He worked 24 hours a day to make his own fortune, which is now completely gone.”
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn