WASHINGTON — Oh, the stories this Russian could tell! If Viktor Bout starts talking to U.S. prosecutors, the man accused of supplying the weapons for civil wars on three continents could raise the roof in both Moscow and Washington.
A tug-of-war between the two powers has played out largely in public over Bout, dubbed “the Merchant of Death” in 2000 by a minister in Britain’s Foreign Office. On Friday, an appeals court in Bangkok ordered his extradition within three months to the United States, where he faces criminal charges that could put him in prison for life.
An arms trafficker who assembled a fleet of cast-off Russian cargo planes and operated a transcontinental network for over a decade wouldn’t have stayed alive, much less thrived, unless he had the blessing and support of influential Russian officials, said people in and out of government who have watched his operations.
Bout has even made money off those who said they wanted to put him out of business — the U.S. government and the United Nations. He ignored sanctions by both, while counting as customers the U.S. military in Iraq and U.N. aid programs.
And now? The Russians “wanted him back because he’s linked to Russian intelligence,” said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif. “He lived in the open in Russia despite an Interpol arrest warrant” from a Belgian money-laundering case.
But the Russians say it is just about international politics. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called the Thai court decision “unlawful and political.”
Juan Zarate, a senior counterterrorism official in the George W. Bush administration, said the Russians are pushing hard over the issue of sovereignty.
“They don’t like the fact that one of their citizens, especially one who’s so prominent and notorious, is facing charges in the United States,” said Zarate, who green-lighted a Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation that led to Bout’s arrest in Thailand.
Zarate also pointed to Bout’s “connections with the Russian establishment for some time,” saying that “perhaps some of those people are nervous about what he knows and what he might say if he lands in a courtroom in New York.”
On Friday, dressed in an orange prison uniform, Bout stood after the appeals court verdict was announced. Tears welled in his eyes as he hugged his wife and daughter, who wept. He was led out of the courtroom and back to a Bangkok prison where court officials said he would remain until the extradition is processed.
So far, he has spent two years in a Thai prison.
Who is Viktor Bout?
Viktor Bout, a Russian businessman, is alleged to have supplied weapons that fueled civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa, with clients including Liberia’s Charles Taylor, Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy and both sides of the civil war in Angola.
The U.S. indictment accuses Bout of conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to FARC, including more than 700 surface-to-air missiles, thousands of guns, high- tech helicopters and airplanes outfitted with grenade launchers and missiles. It also charges him with conspiring to kill Americans, conspiring to kill U.S. officers or employees and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
