He is a notorious Russian arms dealer known as the “Death Dealer”, who is serving a 25-year federal prison sentence for conspiracy to sell weapons to people who said they planned to kill Americans. And the Kremlin seems to be interested in tying their fate to a possible deal with the Biden government that would free them both. The huge difference between the cases of Brittney Griner and Viktor Bout underscores the extreme difficulty that President Biden would face if he sought a prisoner exchange to free Ms. Griner, a WNBA player, from detention in Moscow. The Biden government, reluctant to motivate the arrest or abduction of Americans abroad, would find it difficult to justify the release of a bad figure like Mr. Booth. At the same time, Mr Biden is pushing for the release of Ms Greener, who was arrested at a Moscow airport in February and classified by the State Department in May as “illegally detained”. This reflects the concern that the Kremlin sees as leverage in the tense confrontation between the United States and Russia over Ukraine. Last week, dozens of groups representing people of color, women and LGBTQ Americans sent a letter urging Biden to “make an agreement for Britney to return to America immediately and safely.” Ms. Greiner ‘s trial was scheduled to begin on Friday. Mr Bout, 55, a former Soviet soldier who made a fortune in the global arms trade before being arrested in a federal sting operation, could be the price of any deal. Russian officials have been pushing for Mr Booth’s case for years, and in recent weeks Russian media have linked his case to that of Greener. Some, including the state news agency Tass, have even claimed that talks with Washington on a possible exchange are already under way, which US officials will not confirm. Mr Bout’s lawyer in New York, Steve Zishu, said in an interview that Russian officials were pushing for the release of Mr Bout, who was convicted in 2011 of offering to sell weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, to members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia or the FARC. Mr Zisu said he had met with Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly I. Antonov in Washington in June and that Mr Antonov had told him that Mr Bhutto’s release was a high priority for the Russian government. “It has been made very clear to the American side that they will have to face Victor Booth if they expect further exchanges of prisoners,” Mr Zissou said. “My sense is that no American will go home unless Victor Booth is sent with him.” U.S. officials have denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning Mr Greene have been made more than once. The State Department, as a matter of practice, rejects questions about prisoner exchanges around the world, warning that they set a dangerous precedent. “The use of illegal detention as a bargaining chip poses a threat to the safety of all who travel, work and live abroad,” said Ned Price, a spokesman for the department.
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Mr Biden agreed to an exchange of detainees in April, during which Russia released Trevor Reed, a former U.S. Marine from Texas, who had been detained since 2019 on charges of assaulting two police officers. In return, the United States released Konstantin Yaroshenko, a pilot who was sentenced in 2011 to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking. However, White House officials said Mr. Reed’s poor health made his case “excellent.” Many people have expressed their support for Ms. Greener, a star athlete and basketball idol. Less obvious is the Russian government’s solidarity with an organized crime titan associated with terrorists and war criminals. In December, a government building in Moscow exhibited two dozen pencil sketches and other artwork by Mr. Bout produced from his cell in a federal penitentiary near Marion, Ill. By the time he was arrested in 2008, Mr. Booth (pronounced “boot”) was so well known that an arms dealer portrayed by Nicholas Cage in the 2005 film “Lord of War” was based on his life. UPDATED July 1, 2022, 2:49 a.m. ET Born in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, he attended a Russian military college and served as a Soviet Air Force officer. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr. Booth began making money by transporting cargo between continents. U.S. officials say he soon became one of the world’s top arms dealers, transporting weapons from the former Soviet army on Ilyushin transport planes, with a particularly lucrative operation in war-torn African countries such as Liberia and Sierra Leone. Mr Booth denies any wrongdoing. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the United States and European nations were convinced that Mr. Booth’s arms missions not only fueled death and misery, but also violated the United Nations arms embargo. They were particularly concerned by reports that he may have traded with the Afghan Taliban and even al-Qaeda, which he denies. Eventually, the United States plunged Mr. Booth into a trap. In 2008, a couple of Drug Enforcement agents posing as members of Colombia’s left-wing FARC guerrilla group arranged a meeting in Bangkok with Mr. Booth to buy weapons, including 30,000 AK-47 rifles, plastic explosives and rocket-propelled grenades. for use against The Colombian government and US military personnel support its campaign against the FARC. “Victor Booth was ready to sell an arsenal of weapons that some small countries would envy,” said Prit Bharara, then US attorney for the Southern District of New York, following his conviction. “It aimed to sell these weapons to terrorists in order to kill Americans.” The official status of the FARC at the time as a foreign terrorist organization meant that Mr. Bout imposed a mandatory minimum federal sentence of 25 years. A former US official familiar with Mr Booth’s condition has said that the Russian government’s interest in his release appears to be personal and that he has ties to powerful people close to President Vladimir Putin. Another former US official made a slightly more plausible statement: Mr Booth was arrested in Thailand and extradited to New York. Russian officials have protested what they call the growing “practice used by the United States to actually hunt down our citizens abroad and arrest them in other nations,” said Grigory Lukyanchev, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s human rights commissioner, in August. according to the Russian news RT. The first former US official said it was highly unlikely, given the scale of his crimes, that Mr Booth would be released under any deal with Ms Greener – even though some speculated the trade included Paul Whelan, a former Marine has been imprisoned in Moscow since December 2018 on espionage charges. The former official said Russia had demanded Mr Bout’s release in even higher cases in the past and had categorically rejected it. Both former officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they had no authority to publicly discuss their knowledge of Mr Booth’s case. Danielle Gilbert, an assistant professor of military and strategic studies at the US Air Force Academy who specializes in hostage diplomacy, agreed that Mr. Booth’s release would be a difficult political proposal. But he did not rule out the idea. “I would not be surprised if they at least consider it,” he said, noting that he was not talking about the US government. Mr Booth has at least one advocate for his release in the United States: Shira A. Scheindlin, the presiding judge in his case. In an interview, Ms Scheindlin said Mr Booth’s exchange with Ms Greener would be inappropriate, given the scale of his breach in relation to her alleged breach. But he said an agreement that also included Mr Whelan could even weigh. Mr Booth has already served 11 years in prison, he said, adding: “In my opinion he was not a terrorist. He was a businessman. ” Although she was asked to impose a mandatory sentence of 25 years on him, she added: “I thought she was very high at the time.” “So, having served as long as he has served, I think the United States’ interest in punishing him has been satisfied,” he said, “and it would not be a bad equation to send him back if we take back these people who are important to us.” Even if the United States were open to such an agreement, Mr. Jesus said it would not be imminent. He said he believed Russia – which insists Ms. Greener faces legal charges and is not a political pawn – was determined to complete its trial before negotiating her release. “And that is likely to take a few months,” he said.
