Remember Viktor Bout, the so-called ‘merchant of death’?
Bout was traded by the Biden administration in 2022 for WBNA star Britney Griner, as part of a prisoner exchange with Russia.
To be fair, I don’t think either Viktor Bout or Britney Griner should have been imprisoned in the first place.
The United States and the other four members of the Permanent U.N. Security Council are pretty much responsible for all weapons sales globally—even the black market sales.
Where do people think these ‘highly sophisticated’ weapons, that Bout was alleged to have been peddling, come from in the first place? A small, rural village in India?
To prosecute Viktor Bout as an arms dealer was a highly hypocritical decision in the first place—an example of the pot calling the kettle black.
Brittney Griner also did nothing that warranted a 9-year prison sentence. She brought a small, personal amount of marijuana into the country—if they didn’t like it they should have confiscated it.
She was there to play a sports game. Clearly, she wasn’t a drug dealer sent with pounds of hash and cocaine into the country.
However, it has to be said: if you trade a man that you, yourself, have dubbed the ‘merchant of death’ for a basketball player—you got the wrong end of the deal.
Matter of fact, I can confidently say that Russia deliberately arrested Griner, a young, high-profile black woman, in order to force this trade.
They knew that the woke Biden administration when pressured by the media and the public, would take the bait and agree to pretty much any demand to have Griner freed.
Make no mistake, I am happy she is home, but a shrewd negotiator like President Trump would have gotten her home without giving Bout back to the Russians and using Bout as a chip to get something else of much greater value.
Now that very same Viktor Bout is running for office in Russia—imagine that. …Multiple outlets confirmed the news on Tuesday:
Viktor Bout, a former Russian arms dealer exchanged in a prisoner swap with women's basketball star Brittney Griner, announced his plan to run for a far-right party in an upcoming local election. | @ariblaff https://t.co/SZJXq80j0Z
— National Review (@NRO) July 4, 2023
Viktor Bout: Russian arms dealer freed last Dec in a prisoner swap for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner has been chosen as the candidate of a far-right party for a seat in a Russian regional legislature. @TeresaCCarter2 https://t.co/YZw1RTZJLz
— Justice (@Loveon999) July 2, 2023
Fox News reports:
Viktor Bout, 56, has joined Russia’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and is now running to be elected to the regional legislature.
The LDP currently holds 23 of the 450 seats in Russia’s legislature. The party is to the right of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s dominant United Russia Party.
Bout served just 10 years of his 25-year sentence in the U.S.
"#ViktorBout,a Russian arms dealer freed in a prisoner swap for US basketball star #BrittneyGriner has been chosen as the candidate of a far-right party for a seat in a Russian regional legislature,according to state news agency RIA"https://t.co/X5JKdtbU9C#Ukraine #LDPR #Russia
— Venus Throw (@OneVenusThrow) July 3, 2023
Vote for Viktor.
He's already got the look and the endorsements: "Viktor Bout, in my eyes, is one of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth," Michael Braun, the former chief of operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration" https://t.co/4BNu0PhrN0. pic.twitter.com/uukE2rLQmP
— Robert Young Pelton (@RYP__) July 3, 2023
CBS News adds:
The ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party has approved Bout as a candidate for the Legislative Assembly elections in the Ulyanovsk region in central Russia, TASS reported. He was also on the list of candidates for the Krasnoyarsk City Council, which will be held on Sep. 10.
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