Viktor Bout

US basketball star Brittney Griner was freed in a prisoner exchange for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout nearly 10 months after she was arrested at a ...

The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Brittney Griner was exchanged for Russian citizen Viktor Bout at Abu Dhabi Airport in the United Arab Emirates on ...

U.S. officials released convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in their prisoner swap for WNBA star Brittney Griner Thursday morning, returning the man known as ...

Russia got the jailed arms dealer back from the United States on Thursday after exchanging imprisoned U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner for him at Abu Dhabi ...

The U.S. released arms dealer Viktor Bout, nicknamed the "Merchant of Death," after Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner in a prisoner exchange.

Bout was extradited to the U.S. Bout eventually came to be seen as the world's biggest weapons smuggler. People can argue: Was he the biggest arms trafficker? Sourcing weapons from the huge stockpiles of the collapsed Soviet Union, the Russian used a fleet of Soviet-built transport aircraft to supply vast quantities of arm, often circumventing international embargoes. In releasing Bout, the U.S. Bout, whose exploits inspired a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S officials said were to be used against Americans.

Viktor Bout, 55, is a former Soviet military officer and translator who was serving a 25-year prison sentence in the US.

ABC News' foreign correspondent Maggie Rulli discusses the guilty verdict in the Brittney Griner trial in Russia.

"We at the DEA were just trying to step up to the plate and do the right thing for national security." helicopters in Columbia, according to Maltz. On Thursday, the WNBA star was swapped for Bout -- a Russian convicted arms dealer who spend 15 years in U.S.

MOSCOW — (AP) — Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, swapped Thursday for WNBA star Brittney Griner, is widely known abroad as the “Merchant of Death” who ...

(3RD UPDATE) 'She is safe. She is on a plane. She is on her way home,' tweets US President Joe Biden.

She was sentenced on August 4 to nine years in a penal colony on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs. “I am so glad that Brittney Griner is on her way home,” he said. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone with Griner from the Oval Office, along with Griner’s wife, Cherelle. “She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home after months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances,” Biden told reporters at the White House, adding she would arrive within the next 24 hours. Griner, 32, a star of the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Phoenix Mercury, was arrested on February 17. “This is a day we’ve worked toward for a long time.

The former Russian military officer fueled multiple conflicts around the globe by ferrying arms and ammunition to forces under international sanctions.

Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, swapped for WNBA star Brittney Griner, is widely known outside the country as the “Merchant of Death” who fueled some of ...

The nickname was included in the U.S. authorities tricked him into leaving Russia for what he thought was a meeting over a business deal to ship what prosecutors described as “a breathtaking arsenal of weapons — including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles, machine guns and sniper rifles — 10 million rounds of ammunition and five tons of plastic explosives.” targeted Bout vindictively because it was embarrassed that his companies helped deliver goods to American military contractors involved in the war in Iraq. “He got a hard deal,” said Scheindlin, the retired judge, noting the U.S. Bout was estimated to be worth about $6 billion in March 2008 when he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. The group had been classified by Washington as a narco-terrorist group. Prosecutors said he was ready to sell up to $20 million in weapons, including surface-to-air missiles to shoot down U.S. Bout was convicted in 2011 on terrorism charges. “They simply woke me up and told me to gather my belongings,” Bout said, referring to U.S. Washington protested her sentence as disproportionate, and some observers suggested that trading an arms merchant for someone jailed for a small amount of drugs would be a poor deal. The show of his art underlined Bout’s complexities. “They didn’t provide any special information but I understood the situation that was unfolding.”

U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner has been released in a prisoner swap with Russia in exchange for former arms dealer Viktor Bout and was heading back to ...

Bout was variously dubbed “the merchant of death” and “the sanctions buster” for his ability to get around arms embargoes. Bout was one of the world’s most wanted men before his arrest in 2008 in Thailand after a sting operation by U.S. A Biden administration official said the United States had proposed multiple different options for Whelan’s release and that Russia’s “sham espionage” charges against him were the reason Moscow treated his case differently. Last month she was taken to a penal colony in the Russian region of Mordovia to serve her prison sentence. I was arrested for a crime that never occurred.” “The choice was one or none.” Even as Griner was on a flight bound for Texas, Bout arrived in Moscow and hugged his mother and wife after stepping onto the tarmac, images on live television showed. “This was not a choice of which American to bring home,” U.S. The Russian foreign ministry said it traded Griner for Bout, 55, a Russian citizen who in 2012 was given a 25-year prison sentence by a U.S. “There was no mediation involved,” Jean-Pierre said. The swap was a high-profile and rare example of cooperation between Washington and Moscow since the invasion. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone with Griner from the Oval Office, along with Griner’s wife, Cherelle.