At the hotel in Bangkok (Thailand). The arrest was carried out with the participation of the Thai police special forces and representatives of the United States, including employees of the anti-narcotics agency.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, part of the US federal government, issued a statement in Washington, DC, in which it said that Bout was "accused of conspiracy to sell weapons worth millions of dollars to the foreign terrorist organization FARC based in Colombia."
The American court rejected all the petitions of the Russian's lawyers to dismiss the case on the basis of inconsistency of jurisdiction and the illegality of his export from Thailand.
August 10, 2011 at the Bangkok Judicial Panel of the Thai Criminal Court to review the extradition case to the United States of Victor Bout at the request of his lawyer Laka Nitivat Wichan. As part of this request, the defense attorney drew the court's attention to the fact, from his point of view, completely illegal export of a Russian businessman to America.
On September 7, New York District Court Judge Shira Sheindlin disagreed with the allegations of the US Attorney's Office in the case of Russian businessman Viktor Bout that he was involved in the arms trade. On that day, at the last pre-trial hearing, she said that Booth, not an arms dealer.
On October 12, the first day of Viktor Bout's trial ended with the formation of a jury trial. At the time of the oath, one of the selected jurors declared that she could not attend the trial. Thus, the jury.
November 2, New York Federal Court jury on all four counts. The jury found Bout guilty of conspiracy to assassinate Americans and US officials, attempted to acquire and sell missiles and support terrorism through cooperation with the Colombian group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The jury's decision was unanimous in accordance with US court procedure. The Russian has pleaded not guilty to any count.
Bout's defense appealed against the guilty verdict, having filed several motions stating that the prosecutor's office did not support the charges in the case file. In particular, the defense challenged the jury's decision on the basis that at least one of the jury members had preliminary one-sided information about the defendant by watching the blockbuster Lord of War (in the Russian box office - "The Armory Baron"), as reported in an interview with the newspaper New York Times. The court is a defense motion.
At the end of February 2012, Victor Bout was on general regime in a New York detention center. Prior to that, he spent 14 months in solitary confinement in a special block for those accused of crimes motivated by terrorism and cruel violence.
March 26 Thai court in connection with the death in January 2012 of his lawyer Laka Nitivat Wichan. The appointed court session was devoted to hearing witnesses at the request of the defense to take Viktor Bout from Thailand to the United States in November 2010. However, in connection with the death of Nitivat Vichan, the meeting could not take place, since neither the plaintiff himself, who was in an American prison, nor an authorized defense lawyer attended it.
The term for sentencing Viktor Bout at the request of the defense: first on March 28, then on April 5.
On April 6, the Federal Court of New York sentenced the Russian Viktor Bout, finding him guilty of intending to sell a consignment of weapons to the Colombian left-wing radical group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
On June 1, after trilateral negotiations involving prosecutors, the court and the defense, it was decided that Victor Bout would serve a permanent sentence in the Marion prison in the middle regime in Illinois. This is the third level of severity of the regime out of five provided for by the US punishment system.
On July 6, Buta's wife Alla wrote an appeal to the Russian Ministry of Justice for further serving the sentence. In August, the documents required to consider the issue of extradition to the homeland of Booth, convicted in the United States, through diplomatic channels to the American side
On November 10, the US Department of Justice of Russia in transferring entrepreneur Viktor Bout to serve his sentence at home, justifying the refusal by the seriousness of the crime committed, objections from law enforcement agencies, and also by the fact that such a possibility is excluded due to Bout's criminal past.
On September 27, 2013, a US court of appeal to Russian Viktor Bout, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for conspiring to sell a consignment of weapons to Colombian militants. The court dismissed an appeal by the convict, who argued that he was the victim of persecution for which there was no legal basis.
In October, the Russian's defense filed a motion to review the decision by the full court of appeal, but Booth to consider his appeal against the verdict.
In June 2015, the defense of Viktor Bout in connection with newly discovered circumstances, however, the court of first instance rejected it in October. After that, the defense initiated this decision.
Booth spent almost four years in the "communications control unit" of Marion Prison in Illinois. In October 2016, the court and the leadership of the US penitentiary system petitioned the defense of the Russian for his transfer to a general regime of imprisonment.
On November 21, 2016, the New York Court of Appeal to review the case of Victor Bout. According to his lawyer Aleksey Tarasov, the court rejected the appeal with the main wording "that almost all the evidence is not newly discovered circumstances."
On February 21, 2017, defense of a Russian businessman imprisoned in an American prison in his case before the US Supreme Court.
The fate of Russian citizen Viktor Bout, sentenced to a long term in the United States in prison, in Moscow's relations with Washington.
Material prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti
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Booth is ready
International "arms baron" Viktor Bout, who was recently smuggled in handcuffs from Thailand to the United States and has a life sentence across the ocean, is actually lucky. Agree, not every loner, at his own peril and risk, who sells weapons, is given not only to survive, perhaps, in the most dangerous business, but to become at the same time the main character of a Hollywood blockbuster and at the same time the worst enemy of the richest people in America who finance the US Democratic Party. And also to make a fabulous fortune, to influence the political processes in Russia, to have the hawk diplomat Richard Holbrooke as enemies, and a group of former KGB officers who once almost staged a coup d'etat in Moscow as friends. And for many years to remain a partner of a myriad of diverse African leaders, often at war with each other for life and death.
Most likely Bout will be lucky this time too: after all, his fate is being baked not only in Moscow, in the Russian Foreign Ministry, but also in Washington, at the headquarters of the National Committee of the Republican Party. What is Bout being accused of formally and what they really want to throw him behind bars, who may soon repeat his fate and why our secret services are in no hurry to exchange him, like a group of "Russian spies" recently caught in the United States, the correspondent of Nasha Versiya understood ...
Bout will be imprisoned, overseas experts say practically with one voice, and journalists from American newspapers are calculating whether the prosecution has enough episodes to pass a life sentence to a Russian, and are outraged that the case will be heard in New York, where the death penalty does not apply as a capital punishment punishment.
The trial of Viktor Bout is scheduled to begin on January 10, 2011, but the defendant does not appear to be in awe of a federal court. It seems strange: Bout is accused of conspiracy to kill US citizens, conspiracy to assassinate government officials, purchase and sell air defense missiles, and supply weapons to terrorist groups. However, the businessman never pleaded guilty to any of the charges brought against him by the court of the Southern District of New York, although he was well aware that this would not only drag out the process for months, but would not set the judges in the best way towards him.
Where does such self-confidence come from? After all, not only American investigators, but also their British and even Belgian colleagues are ready to provide evidence that can tip the scales of Themis not in his favor.
“The Victor Bout case is strange in many ways,” says Stephen Cohen, an American political scientist. - On the one hand, in the Congress the struggle for his extradition to the United States was led by the Californian Republican Ed Royce. On the other hand, the Republicans said that they would not allow Booth to be made a scapegoat and blame him for transactions in which he did not participate. Maybe it's all about the money. It has long been known that the Democrats are helped by the part of the arms lobby that profits from African deals, and the Republicans by the other part, which has interests in the Middle East. Booth competed with the former and, with his successful business, made them poorer and therefore less influential. So, while one part of the Congressmen - Democrats - will drown him in every possible way, the other - Republicans - at the same time will try not to give him offense. "
Viktor Bout was arrested in Bangkok in March 2008 as a result of a special operation carried out by the American special services. With a cursory analysis of open sources, it becomes obvious that Booth's trade operations in America were seriously interested 10 years ago, after the UN, at the suggestion of Richard Holbrooke in December 2000, made public a report on secret arms transfers to the paramilitaries of Angola, Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone a kind of "Eastern European cartel" headed by Viktor Bout, a Russian citizen with several passports and surnames. This legend is strongly supported by the media, not seeking to dig deeper.
If you dig deep, you can stumble upon amazing facts. And to see that Booth was interested in America a little earlier. And that Holbrook appeared in this story for a reason.
It is no secret that the arms cartels behind which this or that state stands, annually lose up to $ 10 billion from the activities of single individuals such as Bout. This, by the way, is the official statistics of the UN, and if you believe it, about a quarter of the world's small arms are sold on the black market. And in the fall of 1998, on the eve of the bombing of Belgrade by American planes, the then US President Bill Clinton was informed that the operation in Yugoslavia could be thwarted due to the alleged massive supply of Russian weapons to the Balkans, behind which are several private individuals, former KGB officers. For the first time, Booth was mentioned in the report, more precisely, there he appeared as Butov.
One common myth should be debunked here: Booth was never a full-time employee of the special services, he came to business from the military transport aviation, but he had many acquaintances among the KGB officers. In the summer of 1999, the US National Security Council authorized wiretapping of the governments and guerrilla leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Zaire), Liberia and Sierra Leone - either in the hope of extinguishing conflicts, or vice versa. And Booth's name came up again. It turned out that a Russian little-known to representatives of the arms business controls almost half of the circulation of small arms in Africa! At one time, Democrat Bill Clinton became president, not least thanks to his friendship with representatives of the arms lobby, which, having calculated their losses from Bout's activity, flew into a rage and demanded the head of a competitor. And Russia simultaneously received two requests for the whereabouts of Viktor Bout - from Interpol and the US FBI, both dated September 1999.
It is known how it is customary in our country to conduct investigative actions: slowly. The process dragged on for almost a year. For us, this is not a time limit, but the Americans were running out of time: to replace Clinton, who was friends with arms dealers who were exploring African markets, there was George W. Bush, who also made friends with gunsmiths, but focused on the Middle East region. In general, the situation is as follows: it is possible to defeat a competitor using the entire power potential of the United States, but one must act super-operatively until the White House has a new owner. On December 23, 2000, the scandalous report appeared - with the filing of the US representative at the UN, Richard Holbrooke. In two months, the UN and the spirit of Holbrooke will not remain, but he will do his job - from now on, Booth will begin a decade of the closest attention to his person. Booth himself is rumored to consider Holbrooke his number one enemy.
For about 10 years Booth managed to act quietly, but extremely effectively. In the early 90s, the former translator of the Vitebsk regiment of military transport aviation, at the suggestion of friends who served in the KGB, including the notorious adventurer Anton Surikov, began to engage in air cargo transportation. - so count. Booth then built a refrigerator in the South African port of Petersburg and began shipping cheap frozen chickens to half-starved Nigeria. In the mid-90s, Bout owned 160 aircraft. Things are going well, Booth is moving to Belgium. And then Anton Surikov reappeared on the life horizon of Bout.
In the mid-90s, before the historical merger of Promexport and Rosvooruzheniye, chaos reigned on the Russian arms supply market. Not only our small arms were sent to the countries of Africa and the Middle East, but also anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as more sophisticated equipment. These non-state supplies were, as a rule, handled by people from the special services, such as Surikov.
“In the future, for about 10 years, the export of Russian arms is generally doomed,” he said in one of his interviews in those years. - Unlike the times of the USSR, nothing new is being created in the field of technology. The personnel of enterprises and institutes of the military-industrial complex grow old and leave, no one comes to replace them. So Russia will sooner or later lose its competitiveness in the world market. And this is unlikely to be avoided. "
And while the process of disintegration was going on, it was necessary, in his opinion, to occupy a slightly different niche: not in the production of weapons, but in free trade in them on the international market. Surikov believed that it was more promising to participate in promoting Brazilian or Ukrainian products to world markets. As another promising direction, he recognized the export from the countries of Eastern Europe and Jordan of Soviet-style weapons and ammunition - AK-47 and AKM assault rifles - to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Surikov suggested that Bout use his fleet for the transfer of weapons. Booth allegedly agreed. Things were going great, but everything was spoiled by the Americans, who used to feel at home in Africa, but with the advent of Bout, they began to quickly lose their positions. Booth managed to spill almost all arms deals, ahead of the Americans: they made their way not only to the Russian, but also to other Eastern European arms markets, as well as truly limitless possibilities of prompt delivery.
In the Middle East, it is easier for the Americans to control arms supplies - there is a loyal vassal of Israel, which has powerful special services. And in Africa, the United States does not have such a vassal, and businessmen felt abandoned to their fate.
Later newspapers will publish ingenious schemes for the delivery of small arms to African countries, bypassing UN sanctions. They will decide that Booth was paid with diamonds and that by 2000 he had allegedly completed at least 40 transactions, each of which was estimated by the Americans at about $ 20 million. The militants received military equipment from Russian, Moldovan, Ukrainian and Bulgarian factories - air defense means, 122-mm artillery pieces, ATGMs, air defense systems and ammunition for mortars - 20 thousand mines. Booth's aircraft, Air Cess, were assigned to countries with preferential controls, allowing weapons to be delivered without arousing suspicion. And Booth was helped by no less than the son of the President of France, Jean-Christophe Mitterrand. But the scandal ended as soon as a new president moved into the White House.
George W. Bush was aware that, continuing the African scandal with the illegal supply of arms, he was unwittingly strengthening competitors from the democratic camp. And I tried to roll it up as quickly as possible. The authorities of the United Arab Emirates repeatedly offered the Americans to arrest and extradite Bout, and for his arrest in Sharjah, where Bout's main base of operations was located and his family lived, a special forces unit was even ready, but the White House ordered the operation to be canceled.
Then the Europeans got down to business. In 2002, the Belgian authorities accused Bout of supplying arms to the Taliban * and al-Qaeda terrorists **, and an American delegation flew to Brussels in February to negotiate with Belgian prosecutors on cooperation in the Bout case - read, to quietly hush up his case.
“There were rumors that Bout was collaborating with American intelligence, and they were covering him up, but it was most likely something else,” recalls State Duma Deputy Speaker Vladimir Zhirinovsky. - George W. Bush was too reluctant to increase the influence of his competitors by neutralizing Bout. And he tried to besiege the Belgians. "
But it did not work: Belgium sent an international arrest warrant for Bout to Interpol, and he hastily flew from Sharjah to Moscow on his own plane.
“Unlike Clinton, Bush did not see any threat to the US national interests in Bout’s activities,” sums up Vladimir Zhirinovsky. "Therefore, Condoleezza Rice ordered to solve the problem of Bout by diplomatic means."
And that was done. And the USA announced that there are no more claims against Victor Bout.
Well, if not, then no. Three days after the Belgian warrant was issued, the head of the information department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Yuri Shuvalov, said that “on the instructions of Deputy Minister Nikolai Bobrovsky, the ministry is verifying information about Viktor Bout’s involvement in the supply of weapons to Al-Qaeda.” And on the same day, an unnamed employee of the National Central Bureau of Interpol in Russia confirmed in an interview with ITAR-TASS the existence of an international arrest warrant for Bout, adding at the same time: “Bout is also known for posing as an FSB officer of Russia, although he has never been was ". The search for Bout unexpectedly stopped a few days later, and the FSB representative said that they had no reason to suspect Bout of illegal activities.
Victor Bout seemed to have been forgotten. True, in the fall of 2005 the film "The Gun Baron" was released on the screens of the United States with Nicolas Cage as an arms dealer named Yuri Orlov, who is being pursued by an Interpol officer.
It is difficult to say what prompted the Americans to remember Bout in the fall of 2007 - it is possible that the forthcoming changes in the White House. There is also such a rumor: allegedly the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Alexander Turchinov, at about the same time handed over to the Americans documents concerning the activities of the FarWest corporation, which was engaged in the arms business - they featured the names of Surikov, Bout, and also two more Russians: Rustam Saidov and Vladimir Owl. One way or another, Booth was taken up again.
The Americans faced a dilemma: they understood that Russia would not extradite him, and it would not work to put Bout in a Russian prison either, because what the US accuses him of is not prosecuted by Russian laws. But getting Booth was probably impatient. And then they planted the bait in the form of a large arms order. This story was voiced in a Thai court by a special agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration Robert Zakariasevich. It is strange that it was this structure that was behind the provocation, as a result of which Booth was behind bars. Even stranger is the fact that drug agents were not talking about drugs, but about weapons.
The story is as follows: two agents introduced themselves to Bout's companion Andrei Smulyan as members of the Colombian anti-government organization FARC, an influential Latin American radical left organization that proclaimed America its number one enemy (for this, the American authorities ranked it among the terrorist ones, accusing its members of murder and kidnapping of American citizens). The peculiarity of the US legislation is that crimes against the life and property of American citizens fall under its jurisdiction, even if they are committed on the territory of other states. Cooperation with such organizations is also punished.
Smulian was asked to help acquire a batch of surface-to-air missiles: FARC controls huge coca plantations, which the Americans periodically destroy from planes. After a while, the special agents met with Smulyan in Bucharest. Smulyan spoke with Booth by phone and told the customers that they had 100 Igla MANPADS sets for sale (legally only the state intermediary FSUE Rosoboronexport can sell these weapons), but Booth can supply launchers for ATGMs, and even the latest army helicopters. The final meeting and transfer of money were to take place in Thailand. It was there that Bout was arrested. During his arrest, five passports of different countries were seized from him with the names Booth, Buddha, Bont, Bout and Bulakin.
Will Booth cooperate with the court? Most probably not. They say that Bout was not well impressed by the story of the imprisonment of the former Minister of Defense of Moldova, and later Anatoly Chubais's advisor at RAO UES, Valery Pasat. He was imprisoned for a scam in the 90s, which consisted in the sale of Mig aircraft to the United States at a reduced cost. The fighters were supposed to be sold to Iran, which was giving good money for them, but Pasat, to the detriment of the country's budget, insisted on the Americans. When Pasat was arrested, he had high hopes for the US intervention he once rendered a favor to. But the Americans passed it. And Booth considered this story indicative, they say, the Americans cannot be trusted.
At the same time, last year, Anton Surikov died under very mysterious circumstances - there is a version that he was poisoned. Rustam Saidov and Vladimir Filin, who are no less widely known in narrow circles, lay low on the bottom of Buta's former acquaintances and possibly companions - according to rumors, the Americans are going to arrest them and two dozen other Russian citizens engaged in arms deliveries outside the jurisdiction of Rosoboronexport. So there is no reason to believe that the Russian state will provide protection to these entrepreneurs. There is another unpleasant moment for Bout: his business harmed not only the Americans, but also all the same Rosoboronexport. It turns out that no one is particularly interested in his freedom, and behind bars he more or less suits everyone.
* The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized the Taliban Movement as an extremist organization banned on the territory of Russia - 14.02.2003 No. GKPI 03 116, entered into force 04.03.2003 ** The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 13.11.2008 No. GKPI 08-1956, entered into force recognized the al-Qaeda organization as extremist and banned on the territory of Russia on November 27, 2008
Ruslan Gorevoy
Victor was taken to the Park Row Detention Center. On October 11, 2011, the trial began against him in the Southern District Court of New York in Manhattan. Not a single defense witness appeared in court, although there were seven prosecution witnesses. The charge was brought forward on four counts: conspiracy to kill US citizens; conspiracy to murder persons in the civil service; conspiracy to acquire and sell portable anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS); conspiracy to supply weapons to terrorist groups. At the same time, Bout pleaded not guilty to any of the charges. During the trial, a group of deputies of the Russian parliament sent a letter to the court, which said that “in business circles, among colleagues, friends and relatives of Viktor Bout, there has long been an opinion of him as an honest, respectable, highly moral and responsive person and law-abiding, responsible , a reliable entrepreneur ”. But it did not help. On November 2, 2011, the jury unanimously sentenced Booth. True, his official announcement took place only on April 5, 2012.4 After the sentencing of 25 years in prison, Booth was transferred to the Brooklyn General Security Prison. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the sentence was unfounded and promised to take measures to ensure that Russian citizen Viktor Bout returned to his homeland. In June 2012, Booth was transferred to the Marion prison in Illinois. Since May 2012, negotiations have been underway to extradite him to the Russian authorities and to extradite him to his homeland, but so far without success. Booth's case received a wide public response. Western media called him "the arms lord" and "death merchant". And in Russia, pickets were held in support of Viktor Bout several times. Is Victor Bout Guilty or Innocent? He himself claims to have been the victim of illegal persecution. But, one way or another, his trial was used for political purposes, and the process with the absence of evidence of defense cannot be called completely objective.
* Al-Qaeda - Prohibited Organization of the Russian Federation
* Taliban Movement - Prohibited Organization of the Russian Federation
Death Merchant Victor Bout sentenced in the United States to 25 years in prison. Such a punishment was determined by the federal court of New York to a citizen of the Russian Federation for an attempt to supply portable anti-aircraft missile systems to terrorist organizations. Earlier, the jury found him guilty of conspiracy to smuggle weapons.
Booth, one might say, was lucky. The prosecutor's office demanded a life sentence for him, but judge Shira Sheindlin appointed the minimum sentence.
The gunslinger was found guilty on all four counts. Among them - a conspiracy to kill American citizens, an attempt to sell anti-aircraft missiles and support for terrorism through cooperation with the Colombian group FARC, which is recognized as terrorist in the United States.
Russian lawyer Albert Dayan believes that the client is innocent, calls his case political and tries to prove that it was concocted by the American special services.
According to Dayan, all the characters were pretending: American agents were posing as emissaries of the FARC, and Booth “He pretended to sell them weapons ... Let the prosecutor's office show what Viktor Bout really did, except that he flew to Bangkok with two booklets in his pocket ... The prosecutor's office has no evidence that Viktor Bout wanted to sell them weapons - there are only words! "
but attorney Brendan McGwire reasonably retorted in court: "After all, not a secret informant, but Viktor Bout proposed to supply specific quantities of weapons." McGwire recalled that it was Booth who told the fake emissaries of the FARC that he could immediately get 100 anti-aircraft missiles, and a month and a half later he was already offering 700-800 pieces. Likewise, he was asked for one ton of C-4 explosives, and he volunteered to sell five tons. According to McGwire, Booth was not pulled by the tongue when he offered drones to the fake emissaries of the FARC or advised them to buy a bank and launder money in it.
But the judge still limited herself to a “quarter”. It should be noted that Booth has already served four years in pre-trial detention, and federal sentences in the United States are reduced by 15% in the absence of malicious violations of the regime. This means that 45-year-old Viktor Bout will be able to be released in about 17 years.
However, his wife Alla Booth hopes liberation will come much earlier. She relies heavily on the Russian government in this sense, which "Must show that he does not give his citizens offense."
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russiaindeed, made an official statement on April 6.
“The Russian Foreign Ministry is considering the verdict of the American court, which sentenced VA But to 25 years in prison, as unfounded and biased. Despite the fragility of the evidence base, the illegal nature of his arrest with the participation of US intelligence agents in Thailand and the subsequent extradition, the American justice, fulfilling an explicit political order, ignored the arguments of lawyers and numerous appeals at various levels in defense of a Russian citizen ...
The Russian Foreign Ministry will make all the necessary efforts to return V.A. But to his homeland, using the existing international legal mechanisms for this. This topic will undoubtedly remain among our priorities on the Russian-American agenda, "the statement reads.
What is behind the Booth case? nikolay Petrov, leading expert of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
"SP": - Nikolai Vladimirovich, from the point of view of the United States, in the Bout case is more politics or the fight against terrorism?
- In my opinion, the Bout case from the American side is much less politicized than it seems as presented by the Russian side. In the United States, the courts are independent, and the court in New York has rendered its decision. Now you can, of course, try to use this case in the context of Russian-American relations ( which is what the Russian Foreign Ministry is doing) - but nothing more.
As for the position of our services, it is more or less clear. Booth was silent all the time, he received a very significant sentence. It is clear that the price of silence is help in freeing Bout from the dungeons where the American Themis imprisoned him. And if he does not receive this help, he will cease to be silent. Then the scandal will be serious and much more politicized.
"SP": - What can Booth tell?
- God alone knows. But it is clear that a person who has been involved in large-scale operations for the sale of weapons systems knows a lot and is connected with a large number of people. Some of this circle appear to hold (or have held) high positions.
Nobody knows how the Russian special services patronized Bout. It is only clear that for a long time, when Bout was transported to the United States, we tried to distance ourselves from this case, so as not to attract much attention to him and not turn him into sandalwood, leading to our structures - the military-industrial and special services. But now that it has come to a conclusion, there is a lot at stake. So I don't think Booth will be in prison for 17 years.
"SP": - On what basis is Bout now defending the Russian Foreign Ministry?
- It is not clear to me why the Foreign Ministry is speaking, if from the very beginning Bout was presented as a person who has no relation to government agencies. The Foreign Ministry, it turns out, cares about an abstract compatriot. But it is clear that if this fails, if we do not come to an agreement with the Americans, it is quite possible that Booth will receive much less, but will tell much more.
"SP": - Why do the Americans still operate with legal instruments in catching opponents (for example, Bout), but our special services do not? Why, if ours "get" the enemy abroad, are polonium, if not an ice ax, used?
- First of all, we know how our judicial system works. Both domestically and for export, it works in about the same way - that is, it is very bad. Many cases, if they are referred to international courts, fall apart safely there. We often cannot even logically and reasonably draw up an application for the extradition of potential criminals who were detained somewhere at our own request. Alas, this is how the system works.
However, the examples you have listed relate to another area - corporate punishment of traitors. Such punishments are deliberately made - and we are not alone - ostentatiously cruel and extrajudicial. It is important that everyone who betrays (and Booth, perhaps, therefore keeps quiet), receive an inevitable cruel punishment. This is important for "educational" purposes - so that others would see, be horrified, and leave the thought of doing something, violating their corporate obligations.
"SP": - What mechanisms can be used to get Bout out of prison? The idea has already been voiced that he can be exchanged for an American spy - if one is caught. Is it possible?
- I think, legally, the release of Bout will look like a request to transfer him to the Russian Federation, so that he will serve time in our territory. But, of course, this request must be backed up by positive demarches towards the United States. It is unlikely that the release will take the form of an exchange, when an employee of the American special services sitting with us is exchanged for Booth.
"SP": - What is the time limit for trading in Bout? How long does he have to sit before deciding to speak?
- I think the public statement of the Foreign Ministry is a kind of news to Bout. If it was just a matter of showing him that the Motherland remembers him, it would have been done in a different, less public way.
It seems to me that his imprisonment will not last long. I think the bargaining could take another six months. But perhaps some agreements have already been reached. The term he received is hardly a big surprise. Perhaps Booth has already been told that - conditionally - his problem will be resolved within the next months ...
To what extent does the noise surrounding the "Booth case" correspond to its scale on the world market for the illegal arms trade?
- I'm not ready to estimate the real size of the illegal arms market. - Deputy Director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis Alexander Khramchikhin is speaking... - I can only say that the countries of Western Europe are doing this to the least extent. It's hard to do there. The largest suppliers of "left" weapons are Arab countries. Yes, and businessmen in the United States, in fact, do not disdain this.
"SP": - Why was it so important for the Americans to "put the squeeze" on the Booth case?
“Because he sold weapons to those Americans didn't like. The approach here is purely practical and even cynical. They are fighting not for the triumph of justice, but for their own interests, even in the accusation it is openly stated that Booth threatened the lives of US citizens.
"SP": - As you know, weapons are also illegally supplied to the militants in the Caucasus. As a result, Russian citizens die. Why don't our special services track down a couple of Arab arms lords and arrange a show trial over them, just like the Americans did?
- It's complicated. Not only technically, but also politically. Moreover, Russia, it is not clear why, is trying to flirt with the Arabs. In addition, our special services have other priorities. The main thing for them is that there is a lot of money.
Vice President of the Academy of Geopolitical Problems Konstantin Sivkov
"SP": - Was Bout a major player in the world market for illegal arms sales?
- The situation is very simple. They tried to squeeze Bout so that he would give out some materials, dirt on the Russian leadership and people associated with the leadership of the military-industrial complex, the Russian armed forces.
It must be understood that Booth could not have access to the sale of weapons on the scale that is imputed to him. He was in a different position. He was only a representative of certain Kremlin circles that tried to cash in on the sale of weapons. People from these circles, of course, had access to the highest echelons of Russian power in the 90s and 2000s.
The fact that Bout was sentenced to 25 years in prison indicates that he did not turn over anyone on a large scale. Otherwise, the Americans would find a way to justify him.
At the same time, the fact that the versions that he will serve time in Russia are being heard with might and main testifies, in my opinion, to the fact that in the upper echelons of the US and Russian authorities reached some kind of agreement on this matter.
By the way, this is indirectly indicated by the fact that there is no such noise in the media around the verdict of Viktor Bout, which was when he was arrested.
"SP": - Why are our special services not so active, protecting the lives of fellow citizens, as American ones?
- We do not dare to take such steps yet. We have no claims to establish control over the American or Arab political elite.
America can extradite Viktor Bout to Russia within the framework of the European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced, in force between the Russian Federation and the United States. This was reported to RIA Novosti in the press service of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. “The European Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons is in force in this area between the Russian Federation and the United States of America. The transfer of a citizen of the Russian Federation Viktor Bout to Russia, in the event of his conviction in the United States, is possible within the framework of this international treaty, ”the press service explained.
The most famous Russian prisoner in the USA, sentenced to 25 years, spoke about the maximum security prison
If the Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko will be exchanged for anyone, it is for the Russian "arms baron" Viktor Bout (whom the US special services stubbornly regard as "one of the largest illegal arms dealers" in the world). At least such rumors are persistently circulated in diplomatic circles.
We spoke with Victor Bout about life in an American prison and new circumstances in his case.
Savchenko is in the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center in Moscow, Booth is in the American Marion prison.
At a meeting of the Security Council of the organization, Vitaly Churkin, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, said that if Savchenko had been in similar conditions in the States, her fate "would have been sad, she would never have seen a white light." Is it so?
FROM THE DOSSIER "MK"
Victor Bout was sentenced to 25 years in prison for intending to sell a batch of weapons to the Colombian leftist group FARC (in the role of which were paid agents of the American intelligence service). He is serving his sentence at Marion Prison, Illinois. The institution was opened in 1963 to replace the Alcatraz prison. For a long time "Marion" was a prison of super-maximum security. Until 2006, the prisoners were kept in separate cells for 23 hours daily without the slightest human contact. Among the prisoners were agents of the Soviet and Israeli intelligence, drug lords, bank robbers.
"You talk a lot about Savchenko, but why are you not at all interested in how Russian citizens sit in foreign prisons?" - this reproach is quite fair - and we have heard it more than once. And since the wife of Viktor Bout was the first to complain about the torture conditions of his detention, we started correspondence with the famous prisoner.
- Victor, how do you live in an American prison? What are you allowed to do, what is prohibited?
- I am being held, or rather, I am being held in the so-called Communication Management Unit “Marion”. This is a prison within a prison: we are completely isolated from the rest of the prison. We do not see or hear "normal" prisoners. Even on dates with a lawyer or a representative of the embassy, \u200b\u200bwe are driven so that we cannot see anything from the “other world”.
- "Who are "we?
- Our "yellow submarine" has 40-45 people. Naturally, the contingent is special. The majority (about 70%) are so-called Islamic terrorists, including Americans who converted to Islam, "patriots" and constitutionalists, and Republicans (not to be confused with the Republican Party). The rest - for balance - are crooks, murderers, criminals from other prisons and those who "turned in" their prison gangs.
- How do the prisoners treat you?
- Fine. Personally, I communicate mainly with white political prisoners, with "patriots" (they all hate the current government in America). I am friends with one good Iranian.
In general, all the prisoners are usually a handful of ethnic groups. We have two groups of Arabs who for some reason do not even speak to each other, although they always stick together. And the rest are constantly communicating. Muslims will see enough on TV news and well, let's discuss everything violently. They somehow hung their flags in their cells. But the chief found out about it, the flags were confiscated. They were punished as violators of the regime.
- So you have a TV set there? What is the camera itself?
- A lone cell, it looks like a cell. For every six cells there is a TV that hangs on the wall in the hallway. Sound - through FM receiver. But I don’t watch TV on principle. Already used to without him, so calmer. Moreover, in the news about Russia they show one nonsense. There is a special punishment cell for 6 cells.
- I wonder what they put there for?
- Basically for violations of the type "sent the wrong letter to the judge", "attempted threat to the prosecutor." It happens that they put me in a punishment cell for fights (they, however, happen very rarely, in my memory, maybe a couple of times a year). I was also in the punishment cell. Once I hung a towel to dry in the wrong place, so they punished me.
- And how is life in this "prison in prison" different?
- Rigidity. Less rights for prisoners, more will for warders. This block contains serious restrictions on communication with the will. In general mode, 300 minutes of telephone conversation per month are allowed without limiting the number of calls. And we only have 2 calls, 15 minutes a week (only 120 minutes a month).
- Are dating allowed?
- Yes, but all dates are only through glass. And you need to make an appointment for a certain time so that the conversation can be heard by specialists and translators of the so-called counterterrorism bureau of the FTB, which is supervised by the National Security Agency.
- But the letters reach without any restrictions?
- All correspondence is scanned, translated and delivered only after such “perlustration”. Recently, the "concentration camp" authorities announced new rules. Previously, it was possible to send sealed letters as special correspondence, without inspection, to certain categories: lawyers, courts, congresses, press and, finally, the embassy. Now - only to the lawyer. And even then, after the "citizen boss" checks them and allows them to seal the envelope.
- In fact, the order is even stricter in Russian pre-trial detention centers. Without censorship, you definitely won't send anything to the press ...
- And for me personally, any kind of communication with the press is officially prohibited. All journalists who tried to get a date were refused. I am not even talking about the fact that human rights defenders never come here, as in Russia.
- What about medical support?
- Once a week there is a "round of the head physician". Only instead of a doctor - the director of the prison "with a bunch of different generals." They go into all the cells, greet, write something down in notebooks, clatter with keys, which they each have three kilograms on special belts, and quickly leave. It is useless to expect results from such communication. In response to my requests for dental treatment, they simply offer to remove almost half of the teeth.
- Are dental problems the result of malnutrition?
- Exactly. But there were times when they forgot to feed at all (this was in the federal prison in New York, where he spent almost two years while the trial was going on). And I had to drink water from the tap.
Comments of the wife of Alla Booth:“Vitya practically does not complain, so as not to upset us. But he said he was fed semi-finished products and foods containing GMOs, hormones and pesticides. Victor does not eat all this, he monitors his health, which is very difficult in a prison. To compensate for the lack of movement and good nutrition, he practices yoga, reads a lot, studies medicine, meditates, and draws. "
- I can't even believe ...
- I'll tell you this: our soviet ideas about America - where there is a "fast" and "merciful" jury, polite warders - just a mirage. Look: the number of US residents is only 4% of the world's population, but 25% of all prisoners on the planet are sitting here. And this is not so much a law enforcement phenomenon as a profitable business. Here they even write in the newspapers - a prison-industrial complex. The Federal Bureau of Prisons uses private prison corporations. The three largest are headed by big directors of the FBT and are listed on Wall Street. Along with the jailers' union, they are very active in election campaigns at various levels, donating millions of dollars to these campaigns.
- Where does the money come from?
- Zeks are cheap labor. The company that manages all of the FBT factories pays a maximum of $ 200 per month for skilled labor. This is already competitive with China or India. This is a big cruel business on the grief and suffering of ordinary people (by the way, most of the prisoners are Negroes and Latinos). Therefore, the conditions of detention here are directly proportional to the costs of maintenance.
- And I heard that a lot of money is spent on prisons ...
- According to the FBT itself, in 2014 about 34 thousand dollars a year were spent on 1 prisoner. That's about 5,000 rubles a day! Now imagine that our Federal Penitentiary Service will be paid 5000 rubles a day per prisoner? Is it possible to create such conditions that the prison will be like a sanatorium? I don't even doubt it. Yes, prisons in the United States are clean and well-groomed. But here everything is chained in concrete, trees, bushes, lawns are prohibited. And everything around is gray: buildings, fences and even prisoners' clothes. Everywhere there is a mad amount of barbed wire, armored doors, netting ... Even the sky can be hardly seen.
There are now 300 thousand souls in the FBT ... According to statistics, in 2014 there were 56 million people in the United States who had been imprisoned. But it is difficult to call them even citizens: they are deprived of their electoral rights for life because of their previous convictions (they cannot vote in elections), they cannot receive benefits, food ration cards. And if the “former prisoner” lives with a family that receives a subsidy for rent, the family is deprived of this benefit.
According to the inmates, after the trial, 99% of families break up, as the terms even for minor offenses are 8-10 years, for the rest - 20-30 years. I saw a lot of prisoners with life sentences, most often they had 3-4. That is, according to logic, a prisoner should die in prison, reincarnate and be born again, surrender to prison, die there ... And so several times!
- What do you do in prison from morning till night?
- Yoga, self-education, meditation. There is no gym here, this is based on the fact that prisoners can improve their physical characteristics, resist the prison staff and escape. For the same reason, by the way, books aimed at improving physical fitness are prohibited.
- And what do you read then?
- The other day I reread Hasek's The Adventures of the Gallant Soldier Schweik, and one thought is very interesting: “The military-legal apparatus was magnificent. Every state has such an apparatus that faces a general political, economic and moral collapse. The aura of former power and glory was guarded by the courts, the police, the gendarmerie and the corrupt pack of informers ... ”This apt definition very accurately fits the regime of globalists who rule the show in America.