Russia hints at link between Griner case and fate of ‘merchant of death’


WASHINGTON — He is an American professional basketball star accused of carrying hash oil in his luggage.

He is a notorious Russian arms dealer known as the “Dealer of Death”, who is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for conspiring to sell weapons to people who said they planned to kill Americans.

And the Kremlin seems interested in linking their fates, in a potential deal with the Biden administration that would free the two.

The wide disparity between the cases of Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout highlights the extreme difficulty President Biden would face if he sought a prisoner exchange to free Ms. Griner, the detained WNBA player, from detention in Moscow. The Biden administration, reluctant to create incitement to arrest or kidnap Americans abroad, would have a hard time justifying the release of a villainous figure like Mr. Bout.

At the same time, Mr. Biden is under pressure to release Ms. Griner, who was arrested at a Moscow-area airport in February and whom the State Department classified in May as “wrongfully detained”. This reflects concern that the Kremlin sees as its leverage in the tense confrontation between the United States and Russia over Ukraine. Last week, dozens of groups representing people of color, women and LGBTQ Americans sent a letter urging Mr. Biden to “reach a deal to bring Brittney home to America immediately and safely.”

Ms Griner’s trial was due to begin on Friday.

Mr. Bout, 55, a former Soviet military officer who made his fortune in the global arms trade before being caught in a federal sting operation, could be the price of any deal. Russian officials have pressed Mr. Bout’s case for years, and in recent weeks Russian media have directly linked his case to that of Ms. Griner. Some, including the public information service Tass, have even claimed that talks with Washington for a possible exchange are already underway, which US officials will not confirm.

Mr. Bout’s New York-based lawyer, Steve Zissou, said in an interview that Russian authorities were pushing to release Mr. Bout, who was convicted in 2011 of offering to sell weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, to federal agents posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Zissou said he met Anatoly I. Antonov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States, in June in Washington and was told by Mr. Antonov that Mr. Bout’s release was a very high priority for the government. Russian.

“It has been very clearly communicated to the American side that they are going to have to be serious about Viktor Bout if they expect further prisoner exchanges,” Zissou said. “My feeling is that no American is going home unless Viktor Bout is sent home with him.”

US officials have declined to back up that idea and will not discuss any potential deal to release Ms Griner. The State Department, in practice, dismisses questions about prisoner exchanges around the world, warning they set a dangerous precedent.

“Using wrongful detention as a bargaining chip poses a threat to the safety of all who travel, work and live abroad,” department spokesman Ned Price said recently.

Mr Biden agreed to a prisoner swap in April, in which Russia freed Trevor Reed, a former US Marine from Texas who had been detained since 2019 for assaulting two police officers. The United States in return released Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot sentenced in 2011 to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking. But White House officials stressed that Mr. Reed’s failing health made his case exceptional.

Many people have expressed their support for Ms. Griner, star athlete and basketball icon. Less obvious is the Russian government’s solidarity with an organized crime titan linked to terrorists and war criminals. In December, a government building in Moscow exhibited two dozen pencil sketches by Mr. Bout and other artwork produced from his cell in a federal penitentiary building near Marion, Illinois.

At the time of his 2008 arrest, Mr. Bout (pronounced “boot”) was so well known that an arms dealer character played by Nicolas Cage in the 2005 film “Lord of War” was based on his life.

Born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, he attended a Russian military college and served as an officer in the Soviet Air Force.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr. Bout began to earn money by transporting goods between continents. US officials say he quickly became one of the world’s leading arms dealers, transporting ex-Soviet military weapons in Ilyushin transport planes, with a particularly lucrative business in war-torn African countries. war like Liberia and Sierra Leone. Mr. Bout denies having knowingly trafficked in weapons.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the United States and European countries were convinced that Mr. Bout’s arms shipments were not only fueling death and misery, but also violating arms embargoes. United Nations. They were particularly alarmed by reports suggesting he may have done business with the Afghan Taliban and even al-Qaeda, charges he denies.

Eventually, the United States lured Mr. Bout into a trap. In 2008, two Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as members of the leftist FARC rebel group arranged a meeting in Bangkok with Mr. Bout to purchase weapons, including 30,000 AK-47 rifles, plastic explosives and surface-to-air missiles for use against the Colombian government and US military personnel supporting its campaign against the FARC.

“Viktor Bout was prepared to sell an arsenal of weapons that would be the envy of some smaller countries,” Preet Bharara, then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said after his sentencing. “He was aiming to sell these weapons to terrorists for the purpose of killing Americans.”

The official status of the FARC at the time as a foreign terrorist organization meant that Mr. Bout faced a federal mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years.

A former US official with knowledge of Mr. Bout’s situation said the Russian government’s interest in his freedom appeared to be personal and that he had ties to powerful people close to President Vladimir V. Putin.

Another former US official gave a somewhat more solid reason: Mr. Bout was arrested in Thailand and extradited from there to New York. Russian officials have complained about what they call the “increasing US practice of tracking down our citizens abroad and arresting them in other countries”, as Grigory Lukyantsev said in August, commissioner for human rights of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to the Russian media RT.

The first former US official said it was highly unlikely that, given the scale of his crimes, Mr Bout would be freed as part of a deal for Ms Griner – although, as some have speculated , the trade was to include Paul Whelan, a former US Marine imprisoned in Moscow since December 2018 for espionage. The former official said Russia had asked for Mr Bout’s release in even higher-profile cases in the past and had been firmly rejected.

The two former officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss their knowledge of Mr. Bout’s case.

Danielle Gilbert, an assistant professor of military and strategic studies at the US Air Force Academy who specializes in hostage diplomacy, agreed that Mr Bout’s release would be a difficult political proposition. But she didn’t rule out the idea. “It wouldn’t surprise me if they at least considered that possibility,” she said, noting that she’s not speaking on behalf of the US government.

Mr. Bout has at least one lawyer for his release in the United States: Shira A. Scheindlin, the judge who presided over his case. In an interview, Ms. Scheindlin said it would be inappropriate to trade Mr. Bout for Ms. Griner, given the scale of his offense relative to his alleged violation.

But she said a deal that also included Mr Whelan could even scale it. Mr. Bout has already served 11 years in prison, she noted, saying that “he was not a terrorist, in my opinion. He was a businessman. Although she was required to hand down her mandatory 25-year sentence, she added, “I thought it was too high at the time.”

“So having served as long as he did, I think the interest of the United States in punishing him has been satisfied,” she said, “and it wouldn’t be a bad equation of send it back if we get those people who are important to us back.

Even if the United States was open to such a deal, Zissou said it would not be imminent. He said he believed Russia – which insists Ms Griner faces legitimate charges and is not a political pawn – was determined to complete her trial before negotiating her release. “And that will probably take a few months,” he said.