Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout: The ‘Merchant of Death’ swapped for Brittney Griner
Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, swapped Thursday for WNBA star Brittney Griner, is widely known abroad as the “Merchant of Death” who fueled some of the world’s worst conflicts.
In Russia, however, he’s seen as a swashbuckling businessman who was unjustly imprisoned after an overly aggressive U.S. sting operation.
The 2005 Nicolas Cage movie “Lord of War” was loosely based on Bout, a former Soviet air force officer who gained fame supposedly by supplying weapons for civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa. His clients were said to include Liberia’s Charles Taylor, longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and both sides in Angola’s civil war.
I never want to hear the Biden administration or any other liberal who voted for him talk about gun control ever again! They just cashed their chips in with this swap (never mind leaving former Marine, and 4 year Russian prisoner Paul Whelan, who just so happens to be white, male, and straight, behind). By releasing the Merchant of Death, you no longer have the "moral superiority" to lecture us on gun control going forward.
