Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who was recently freed in a prisoner exchange between Moscow and Washington, claimed on Friday (December 9) that the West is trying to “destroy” and “divide” Russia.
Bout told state-run channel RT: “The West believes that they did not finish us off in 1990, when the Soviet Union began to disintegrate… They think that they can just destroy us again and divide Russia.”
Bout’s remarks came after he was freed as US basketball player Brittney Griner was released from Russia on Thursday in a prisoner swap.
The 55-year-old Bout, one of the world’s most infamous arms dealers, was arrested in 2008 after a sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration as the authorities tracked him to a luxury hotel in Bangkok.
Two years later, Bout was extradited to the United States, where he faced a raft of charges, including conspiracy to support terrorists, conspiracy to kill Americans, and money laundering.
He is accused of fuelling some of the world’s bloodiest conflicts by trafficking weapons across several continents. For his reported crimes, he even received nicknames like “the merchant of death” and “the sanctions buster”.
In the interview, he also said that he did not encounter any “Russophobia” among his fellow inmates, and added that “basically almost all of my prisoner neighbours had some kind of sympathy for Russia.”
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The interview was given to Maria Butina, who is a lawmaker in Russia’s lower house of parliament. Butina served 15 months in a US prison for illegally acting as a foreign agent for Moscow.
Bout’s life, his arrest, the sting operation, everything is like an action-thriller movie. It is said that his life inspired the Hollywood film “Lord of War”, starring Nicolas Cage. In the movie, the anti-hero escaped justice.
While interacting with RT, Bout criticised the film. He claimed that the US film industry was responsible for producing propaganda.
“If they had come to me and asked, maybe they would have come up with a more interesting story. Hollywood these days — in my opinion — is just a propaganda department (of Washington),” he said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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