Returning to Moscow three days ago as part of a prisoner exchange with the USA, Russian citizen Viktor Bout, who was convicted of arms smuggling in the USA, became a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.
Bout was given a party ticket by party chairman Leonid Slutsky on the stage of the Hall of Columns during a rally dedicated to the 33rd anniversary of the Liberal Democratic Party.
“We are the party of patriots! I am sure that Viktor Bout, a strong-willed and courageous person, will occupy a worthy place in it. Welcome to our ranks! said Slutsky.
He thanked Bout for his decision to join the party and described him as “a brave man who has become a symbol of the struggle for principles, spiritual and moral foundations for the spiritual and moral foundations of today’s Russia”.
Earlier, Slutsky said that the party will invite Bout to a meeting of the Duma Committee on International Relations and the LDPR fraction.
Viktor Bout has said himself that he will not run for any election yet.
“It’s not going yet,” quotes RIA Novosti. He also said he sympathizes with the Liberal Democratic Party because it is a “strong party” “close to the people”.
The All Russia meeting of the LDPR took place on 11-13 December in Moscow. Liberal Democrat Party Supreme Council member Senator Elena Afanasyeva previously said that they would discuss the organization of the party’s “election campaign in 2023”.
“Political technology visible”
Alexander Yushchenko, press secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, commented on Bout’s entry into the Liberal Democratic Party, describing him as a loyal person to the country, but arguing that such an “urgent” entry into the party was “not entirely”. its personal choice.
“He is a stable, characterful and loyal person. I have no right to make a judgment here, but I would venture to suggest that such an urgent introduction was not justified by purely personal choice. Political technology is more visible, the press secretary of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation told socialbites.ca.
Yushchenko did not answer a question whether the KPRF was disappointed by Bout’s preference for the Liberal Democratic Party. “Our party membership is not ordered and determined by the media. We attend the party strictly according to the charter. “We regularly welcome many young people from across the country to the party,” he said.
LDPR member Yaroslav Nilov said in an interview with socialbites.ca that at the party Bout would take care of “what is close to him.”
“If he sees himself in an active social and political life, if he is ready, then any member of the party has the potential to participate in elections at various levels. Therefore, there is no need to cause a sensation, no need to shout that he will no longer be a deputy of the State Duma, ”said Nilov.
He reminded that elections to the State Duma will be held in a few years. According to the deputy, “You have to let a person breathe, understand what he wants to do, show himself, and then everything will fall into place.”
I would volunteer
After returning to Russia, Viktor Bout gave an interview with the presenter of the RT TV channel and the deputy of the United Russia State Duma Maria Butina – in 2018 she was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for working in the United States. an unlicensed foreign agent. After the agreement with the investigation, his term was shortened, he was deported to Russia.
During a meeting with Butina, Bout said that he supports military action in Ukraine and will sign up as a volunteer.
“I wholeheartedly support it. If I had the opportunity and the necessary skills, of course I would volunteer,” he said.
According to him, he did not understand why the military operation was “not announced earlier.”
On December 8, after several months of negotiations, Bout at Abu Dhabi airport was replaced by American basketball player Brittney Griner, who was detained at Sheremetyevo airport in February 2022. In hand luggage, they found electronic cigarette cartridges with added cannabis oil, which is allowed in the United States but prohibited in Russia. Greiner was accused of drug trafficking and was sentenced to nine years in prison.
Before the exchange, Greiner and Booth are pardoned, they will not have to serve their sentences at home.
Bout was serving a 25-year sentence in the United States on charges of plotting to kill US citizens and financially supporting terrorism. He was released from an American prison after serving nearly 15 years in prison.
Why was Booth prosecuted?
In the early 1990s, businessman Viktor Bout was engaged in the business of leasing aircraft flying from Europe and Asia to Africa. He chartered planes in Europe, chartered in Africa and earned money from the cost difference.
Bout’s planes carried legal military cargo as well as civilian flights. How spoke About himself, including the transfer of French troops to Angola.
In the late 1990s, Western media began to appear about Bout’s involvement in the arms trade. According to the New York Times, in 2000 a group of experts from the UN Security Council prepared a report stating that Bout was leading the supply of weapons to rebels in Angola, which had been in a civil war for many years.
In 2002, Belgium placed the businessman on the international wanted list, accusing him of smuggling diamonds and money laundering. Two years later, the UN and the USA requested freeze your accounts.
March 6, 2008 Viktor Bout was arrested in Bangkok, where, according to him, he was flying on vacation. Later, the indictment claimed that US intelligence agencies lured Bout to Thailand under the pretext of an agreement to sell surface-to-air missiles to militants of the Colombian organization FARC (“Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces – People’s Army”). Considered a terrorist in the United States.
Viktor Bout was charged with illegal arms trafficking and supporting terrorism. In 2010, he was extradited to the United States after two years in a Thai prison, and in 2012 a court sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
The Russian pleaded not guilty. He denied all accusations and stated that he is engaged in legal affairs in the field of international air transport.