Freed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout back in business: Report | Weapons News | The Round Table Citing an unnamed European security source and other anonymous sources familiar with the matter, the newspaper revealed on Sunday that Bout, dubbed “the merchant of death” was trying to broker the sale of small arms to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi armed group.
“When Houthi emissaries went to Moscow in August to bargain the purchase of $10 million worth of automatic weapons, they competed a familiar face: the mustachioed Bout,” the Journal said, citing its sources.
The potential arms transfers have yet to be delivered, it reported. The weapons fall well short of the Russian antiship or anti-air missiles that could pose a significant threat to the US military’s efforts to protect international shipping from Houthi attacks, it added.
It was not possible to independently confirm the report. The Kremlin and Russia’s Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.
The WSJ declared that Steve Zissou, a New York lawyer who represented Bout in the US, had turned down to confer whether his client had met the Houthis, and that a Houthi spokesman denied to comment.
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After boomeranging to Russia subsequent the prisoner swap in December 2022, the 57-year-old Bout added the Kremlin-loyal ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), but maintained a relatively low public profile.
Bout was one of the world’s most required men prior to his 2008 arrest in Thailand on multiple accuses related to arms trafficking. He was extradited to the US and in 2012, was convicted and sentenced by a court in Manhattan to 25 years in prison.
For almost two decades, Bout was one of the world’s most notorious arms dealers, selling weaponry to rogue states, rebel groups and murderous warlords in Africa, Asia and South America.
His notoriety was such that his life facilitated recommend a Hollywood film, 2005’s Lord of War, starring Nicolas Cage as Yuri Orlov, an arms dealer loosely based on Bout.
Regards to Al Jazeera
Category: World-News
Tag: Freed Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout back in business Report Weapons News The Round Table
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Published 10/7/2024