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Viktor Bout
Viktor Anatolyevich Bout is a Russian arms dealer and politician. A weapons manufacturer and former Soviet military translator, he used his companies to smuggle arms from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. Bout gained the epithet the "Merchant of Death" after British minister Peter Hain read a report to the United Nations in 2003 on Bout's wide-reaching…
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business · Russian arms dealer (born 1967) · arms trafficker · military personnel · interpreter · merchant · entrepreneur · politician · also Viktor Bout, Viktor Anatolyevich But, Viktor Anatolyevich Bout, Victor Bout, Victor Anatoliyevich Bout, Viktor Budd
Born 13 January 1967 · Q314650
30 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 2 entries
Public attention spiked: 8,119 Wikipedia readers in one day, 7.1× the usual 1,150, with 0 article edits.
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2023· 2 entries
Yahoo! Sports: Viktor Bout details swap with WNBA's Griner in first American interview since release
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AOL: Viktor Bout, the convicted arms dealer the US swapped with Russia for Brittney Griner, was nicknamed 'The Merchant of Death' and inspired a Nic Cage movie
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2022· 6 entries
Newsweek: Viktor Bout Eyes Political Career, Joins Pro-Kremlin Ultranationalist Party
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Yahoo: Viktor Bout, the arms dealer the US swapped for Brittney Griner, joins Russian ultranationalist party and could run for parliament
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New York Post: Viktor Bout joins ultranationalist party, reveals he kept Putin’s photo in prison
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Yahoo: Everything to Know About Viktor Bout, the Russian Arms Dealer Involved in the Brittney Griner Swap
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And won a seat in the Legislative Assembly of Ulyanovsk Oblast as a member of the LDPR on 2 July 2023
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Was released in a prisoner exchange for American basketball player Brittney Griner, who had been sentenced, in August 2022, to nine years of imprisonment for bringing 0
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2021· 2 entries
VOA rated the claim “"We as an agency will do everything in order to hasten the moment when the families of Konstantin Yaroshenko and Viktor Bout will reunite[,] when Roman Seleznyov and our other compatriots who have ended up in such a tough predicament in life would be able to return home."” Misleading.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
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Journalist Alexander Gasyuk published the book Viktor Bout: The True Story of the "Merchant of Death"
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2011· 2 entries
Bout was convicted by a jury at a federal court in Manhattan, of conspiracy to kill American citizens and officials, delivery of anti-aircraft missiles, and providing aid to a terrorist organization; he was sentenced to
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Indicated that in late September 2003, British intelligence officials told then-Libyan intelligence chief Musa Kusa that Bout had a "considerable commercial presence in Libya" and aimed to expand his interests there
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2010· 1 entry
French writer Gérard de Villiers wrote the novel The Bangkok Trap, in which Viktor Bout was the inspiration for the main character
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2007· 2 entries
Stephen Braun and Douglas Farah published a book about Bout titled Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible
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The Los Angeles Times reported that the U
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2005· 1 entry
Viktor Bout became the prototype for the main character of the Andrew Niccol film Lord of War, portrayed by Nicolas Cage
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2004· 1 entry
Bout and Chichakli allegedly set up Samar Airlines in Tajikistan to conduct money laundering activities and protect assets from authorities, according to an indictment by the U
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2003· 1 entry
On Bout's wide-reaching operations, extensive clientele, and willingness to bypass embargoes
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2002· 2 entries
Career landmark: Interpol Red Notice.
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An Interpol red notice on Bout was issued
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2000· 2 entries
Bout was charged in the Central African Republic with forging documents and was convicted in absentia, but the charges were later dropped
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A United Nations report stated, "Bulgarian arms manufacturing companies had exported large quantities of different types of weapons between 1996 and 1998 on the basis of (forged) end-user certificates from Togo", and tha
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1995· 2 entries
Bout was involved in negotiations to free Russian hostages during the 1995 Airstan incident
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The Sharjah International Airport in the United Arab Emirates hired Chichakli to be the commercial manager of its new free-trade zone
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1994· 1 entry
Bout made shipments for the pre-Taliban government of Afghanistan, which later became the Northern Alliance, and knew one of its commanders, Ahmad Shah Massoud
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1993· 1 entry
Bout began collaborating with Richard Chichakli
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1991· 1 entry
With the rank of lieutenant colonel, whereupon he started an air freight business
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1967· 1 entry
Born 1967-01-13.
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