(Reuters) – A Russian arms dealer who was released last December in a prisoner swap for American basketball star Brittney Grenier has been selected as a candidate for a seat in Russia’s regional legislature, RIA news agency reported on Sunday.
Once dubbed the “dealer of death” by the United States, Viktor Bout served 10 years of a 25-year sentence in US prisons on arms-trafficking charges until his release in a prisoner exchange with Olympic gold medalist Griner.
The RIA news agency quoted an official in the local organization of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party in Russia as saying that Bout had been nominated for membership in the Legislative Council of the Ulyanovsk region in central Russia.
US agents arrested Bout during a sting operation in Thailand in 2008. The US Department of Justice has described him as one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers who have sold weapons around the world to terrorists and America’s enemies for decades. Bot always denied the charges.
Greiner was sentenced in 2022 to nine years in a penal colony for possession of e-cigarette cartridges containing cannabis oil – banned in Russia – after a court process that Washington described as fake. Griner has since resumed her athletic career.
Bout publicly joined the Liberal Democratic Party after returning to Russia. Despite its name, the LDP holds far-right and ultra-nationalist views and strongly supports President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The LDP had previously provided a home to Andrei Lugovoi, wanted in Britain for the 2006 murder of former KGB officer and Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko. Lugovoi has served as an LDP member of Russia’s national parliament since 2007.
(Reporting by Felix Light; Editing by Gareth Jones)
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