‘Merchant of death’: Who is Viktor Bout, the arms dealer who may be swapped for Brittney Griner

A notorious international arms dealer, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death” and was supposedly the inspiration for a character played by Nicholas Cage in the 2005 movie Lord of War, may be part of a plan to retrieve Brittney Griner.

On Wednesday, the Biden administration offered a potential prisoner swap that would bring home two Americans held in Russia, Griner and Paul Whelan, in exchange for Viktor Bout.

While Cage’s Yuri Orlov character is captured but released by the US government to continue selling weapons to allies, Bout has so far not been so lucky.

The former Soviet military officer was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 in a sting operation in which US officials posed as Colombian rebels. He was held in custody for two years in Thailand before being extradited to the US to go on trial.

In April 2012, a US judge sentenced him to 25 years for attempting to sell heavy weapons to the  Colombian “rebels.”

“It’s a lie,” he shouted as Judge Shira Scheindlin sentenced him to prison and ordered him to forfeit $15m.

Bout, 55, had agreed to sell 100 portable surface-to-air missiles and around 5,000 AK-47 assault rifles to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia during the meeting at a Bangkok hotel.

But instead, he had actually sat down with US Drug Enforcement Administration officials posing as members of the left-wing guerrilla group that was designated a terror organisation by the US.

Following the sentencing, then-Attorney General Eric Holder called Bout “one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers.”

US authorities said after his arrest that Bout, who reportedly speaks six languages, had also sold weapons to guerrilla fighters and dictators in South America, Africa and the Middle East.

Officials believe that Bout began selling weaponry in African war zones in the 1990s, and in 2004 the US Treasury Department banned any business dealings with him over claims he had made $50m from selling arms to the Taliban.

Ever since he was convicted, the Russian government has demanded his release. Now that could happen finally come to help ensure the safe return of Ms Griner and Mr Whelan to American soil.