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Viktor Bout made his first interview to a Russian state news source just hours after landing in Moscow. He stated that he does not believe he was exchanged for Brittney Griner because he is particularly valuable to the Kremlin, adding, “We just don’t leave our people behind.”
Speaking to Russian spy-turned-RT News correspondent Maria Butina, Bout attempted to minimize the significance of the high-profile prisoner swap, which resulted in her return to the United States on Thursday after spending 10 months in a Russian prison on a drug conviction.
“It is useless to think why they exchanged me now,” said Bout to Butina.
“They swapped me, and that is that. I do not believe I am significant in Russian politics. We simply do not abandon our people.”
Critics in the United States and elsewhere have criticized the prisoner swap, claiming that President Biden paid too much to free the basketball player.
Bout, formerly referred to as the world’s most prolific arms dealer and called the “Merchant of Death,” was caught in Thailand in 2008 and convicted in 2011 for conspiring to kill Americans by supplying tens of millions of dollars’ worth of weapons to the Colombia-based FARC narco-terror group. He was given a 25-year federal prison sentence.
Reportedly, the Kremlin desired Bout’s return due to his suspected ties to Russia’s military intelligence and Igor Sechin, a billionaire regarded as President Vladimir Putin’s right-hand man.
Bout, who has portrayed himself as a genuine businessman, has rejected any ties to Russia’s hidden power structures, and in an interview with RT, he argued that his situation was unremarkable.
Bout informed Butina that there were “possibly millions and millions and millions” of cases similar to his and that he was simply caught up in geopolitics.
Bout, 56, briefly discussed his time spent in a US prison, stating that he was never discriminated against for being Russian. He attributed this to the facility’s location in America’s “red belt.” Bout was jailed in a facility with medium security in Marion, Illinois.
“Most of my fellow prisoners were sympathetic to Russia, or if they knew nothing about it, they would ask me questions,” he explained.
President Biden’s detractors criticized the prisoner swap, which resulted in the release of a known international criminal, because it failed to secure the release of Paul Whelan, a former Marine who has languished in a Russian prison for nearly four years.
The United States attempted to obtain Whelan’s release as part of the Bout deal, but the Russians only agreed to a one-for-one swap, according to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
When asked to comment on the controversy surrounding the transfer, Bout responded diplomatically, stating that he did not believe it was an indication of Biden administration weakness.
“I wouldn’t say the Americans capitulated by exchanging me,” remarked Bout. “If an agreement has been achieved, it signifies that both parties have established common ground.”
»“Merchant of Death” Bout told Brittney Griner’s former spy, “We don’t leave our people behind.”«