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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, probably, 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 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 different-colored 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 for what they really want to put him in jail, 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 USA, 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, acquire 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 delay 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 with interests in the Middle East. Booth competed with the former and made them poorer and therefore less influential with his successful business. 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 Booth. 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 quickly began to lose their positions. Booth managed to spill almost all arms deals, outstripping the Americans: they made their way out not only to the Russian, but also to other Eastern European arms markets, as well as truly unlimited possibilities for 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 also 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 his 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 to them, and for his arrest in Sharjah, where Bout's main base of operations was located and his family lived, a special forces detachment 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: “Bout is also known for posing as an FSB officer of Russia, although he never was 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" with Nicolas Cage as an arms dealer named Yuri Orlov, who is being pursued by an Interpol officer, was released on the US screens.
It is hard to say what prompted the Americans to remember Bout in the fall of 2007 - it is possible that the coming 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 in 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 in Russia on November 27, 2008
Ruslan Gorevoy
The biography of Viktor Bout, a former Air Force officer, inspired Hollywood figures to create the film, as a result of which the formidable nickname was fixed to him - the death dealer.
Arrest and extradition
In 2010, Victor Bout (photo presented later in the article) was extradited to the United States from Thailand after a targeted operation by the US Drug Enforcement Agency. DEA employees posed as buyers representing the FARC, the armed forces of the Colombian revolutionaries. This group is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States.
Booth argued that he was simply a legal international shipping entrepreneur, wrongly accused of trying to arm South American rebels, and a victim of American political machinations.
But in New York, I didn't believe in his story.
Who is Victor Bout really?
In April 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of conspiracy to kill US government officials and citizens, supplying anti-aircraft missiles, and aiding a terrorist organization.
During the three-week trial, it was stated that Booth knew that the weapon would be used to kill American pilots collaborating with the Colombian authorities. To this he replied that they had one enemy.
Russian citizen Viktor Bout (photo shown in the article) began his business career in the field of air transport after the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
According to the 2007 book The Merchant in Death, written by security experts Douglas Farah and Stephen Brown, Booth built his business using military aircraft left over from the crumbling Soviet empire's airfields.
The sturdy Antonovs and Ilyushins were sold with crews and were ideal for delivering goods, as they could use the bumpy runways of countries in which hostilities were fought.
Victor Anatolyevich Booth: biography
Bout was born in Soviet Tajikistan on January 13, 1967, although the exact date and place of his birth are unknown. For example, South African intelligence ascribes Ukrainian origin to him.
After serving in the Soviet army, he graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages. The personal website of the airline owner claims that he worked as a military translator and retired from the Armed Forces with the rank of lieutenant colonel. But the biography of Viktor Bout is not so unambiguous. According to other sources, he rose to the rank of major in the GRU and in the 80s of the last century participated in Soviet military operations in Angola.
Despite international sanctions, through a number of front companies, he began to supply weapons to the war-torn regions of Africa.
UN accusations
Victor Bout, whose biography is closely associated with the former leader of Liberia, Charles Taylor, who committed war crimes, was indicted by the United Nations. According to UN statements, he was a businessman, seller and transporter of minerals and weapons who supported the Taylor regime in order to destabilize Sierra Leone and illegally obtain diamonds.
According to Middle Eastern media reports, he supplied weapons to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
Bout has also been accused of arming both sides of the civil conflict in Angola and selling weapons to warlords and governments from the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of Congo to Sudan and Libya.
On the run
Bout himself has categorically denied any ties to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. However, he admitted that in the mid-1990s, weapons were transported to Afghanistan, claiming that they were used by commanders to fight the Taliban.
He also claimed to have helped the French government transport goods to Rwanda after the genocide, and transported UN peacekeepers.
But law enforcement agencies pursued him throughout the 2000s.
In 2002, when the authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, Victor was forced to leave his home in Belgium.
Under various pseudonyms, Bout traveled through the United Arab Emirates and South Africa and reappeared in Russia in 2003.
In the same year, British Foreign Secretary Peter Hein coined his famous nickname. After reading the report on Bout, he said that he is a leading death dealer, the main intermediary in the supply of weapons from Eastern European countries - Moldova, Ukraine and Bulgaria - to Angola and Liberia.
The UN has named Bout a central figure in a web of shadowy arms dealers, diamond brokers and other warmongers.
Tango lessons
Throughout the 2000s, the US took steps against Bout by freezing his assets in 2006, but there was no law under which he could be prosecuted in the United States.
Instead, American agents waited until 2008, identified themselves as buyers from the Colombian rebels, and were introduced to the death dealer through one of his former associates. Soon after DEA officials discussed the secret arms shipments with him, Thai authorities arrested Bout and, after a lengthy trial, began extradition proceedings to the United States.
Booth said the United States' actions against him were politically motivated, and his wife said her husband's only connection to Colombia was tango lessons.
The Russian authorities supported the death merchant. The foreign minister has pledged to fight for his return to Russia, calling the decision of the Thai court "unfair and political."
In the finale of the 2005 film Lord of War, which uses the biography of Victor Bout, the antihero escapes justice. But in life, the "happy end" eluded the arms baron.
Sentence
On 02/11/11, the death dealer was found guilty, and on 04/05/12 he was sentenced to a minimum term of 25 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to sell weapons to terrorist groups. Prosecutors demanded life imprisonment, arguing that Booth's arms trafficking fueled conflicts around the world.
In response, the Russian authorities in 2013 added the US citizens who were investigating the case of Viktor Bout and the drug dealer on the list of persons who were prohibited from entering the Russian Federation. These included former federal attorney Michael Garcia, his deputies Anjan Sahni, Brendan McGwire, Christian Everdell, Jenna Debs, Judge Jed Rakoff, and investigators Michael Rosenzaft and Christopher Lavigne.
The biography of Victor Booth is described in the book by Douglas Fahr and Stephen Brown "The Merchant in Death: Money, Weapons, Airplanes and the Organizer of War" (2007). But there are no words that the death dealer told the New Yorker journalist: "They will try to plant me for life. But I will return to Russia. I do not know when. But I am still young. Your empire will collapse and I will get out of here." ...
It is known that the Russian people are the most divided people in the world. Overnight, about 25 million Russians went to bed in one country, as our president said, and woke up in another. However, there are Russian people who lost their homeland not because of political cataclysms, but because of the evil will of the political elite of other countries.
Recently, many have followed the news related to the pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was denied medical care by the Americans in prison. But how long have you heard anything about Victor Bout? A victim of the Obama regime, he was sentenced by the American Themis to 25 years in prison on fictitious charges, CIA officers were illegally arrested in Thailand and extradited to the United States.
Especially for blog readers, an exclusive interview with Viktor Bout on the topic of Crimea and Ukraine.
First of all, I would like to answer the question "How?"
Several years ago, at a rally in support of Viktor Bout, I met his wife Alla.
Sympathizing with the situation in which Victor and his family involuntarily found themselves, I volunteered to help them in the information sphere.
The result was a website in support of Viktor Bout, where you can find out all the details of the case:
By the way, if you have the opportunity and desire to help Viktor by taking over the maintenance of this site (adding news, documents, and so on), and you also have the appropriate experience with such sites, please write to me by mail.
Let's get back to the heart of the matter. Last summer, thanks to Alla, I got the opportunity to correspond with Victor through the prison correspondence system. Since then, I have sent him a packet of fresh news every few days.
The only source of information for him is the American media and subscriptions to Russian newspapers (for example, Rossiyskaya Gazeta), which arrive two weeks late.
Viktor is not allowed to use the Internet, but he can use special prison correspondence.
Therefore, I took upon myself the task of informing Viktor in a timely manner about what is happening in the world. In fact, I compile a news feed and send it to him through this window, which you can see in the image just above.
So, since there is such an opportunity, I decided to interview Viktor on the events in Crimea and Ukraine.
Dmitry Belyaev:
Victor, how are you? How is your health?
Victor Bout:
I'm fine no matter what. This is a kind of struggle for me - despite all the difficulties, to be in excellent physical and moral shape, not to deviate from the planned program - to study, read, draw. I try to take all my free time and study medicine, biology and everything related to health. Yoga, meditation (which I do every day) and exercise (I try to combine - running, Pilates, circuit training) are very important.
It is important to understand and monitor what you eat - especially here, poorly fed, semi-finished and GMO foods! But even here there are some opportunities to stay healthy - do not eat meat, dairy (hormones and antibiotics), wheat, corn (GMO). Even apples have to be peeled off before eating to remove toxic wax and pesticides. No cookies, no sweets (high fructose corn syrup) and so on. It is not easy, but I feel a change for the better in my mind and body as I do this. No soft drinks (high fructose corn syrup).
This is a separate story, but if anyone is interested, I can describe my personal experience with nutrition and how to do without drugs using yoga, meditation and diet.
Dmitry Belyaev:
Have you heard anything about the state of health of Konstantin Yaroshenko? What do you think of it?
Victor Bout:
I heard about the health problems of Konstantin Yaroshenko (I read an article in the RG, and Alla told me). I am very worried about him. I know from myself that the conditions in which he finds himself and the prison environment are aimed at undermining his health. The food is poor, the lack of stimulation for vision usually leads to its decrease (I also started this, but exercise and yoga helped, so I read without glasses) and most importantly, the feeling of injustice combined with this slow death penalty. All this creates conditions for a normal person to quickly break down and die of illness. If you start drinking coffee, eating ice cream and cookies, hamburgers and bread and milk, trying to get rid of depression, it will worsen even more, you will become overweight, and this is another risk factor. I would like to wish Konstantin to get well soon. I think if you can give him moral support, it will also help him.
Dmitry Belyaev:
I would like to congratulate you on the return of Crimea to Russia. What is your opinion on this?
Victor Bout:
Thank you, this is really good. I would like to wish Ukrainians to remain firm and clearly express their opinion - if Bandera want to follow in the footsteps of their mentor, this does not mean that all Kievites and Ukrainians adhere to the same views. I hope that there is an opportunity to prevent a civil war, but personally, I believe that the crowd from the Maidan is only interested in mass bloodshed and ideological cleansing, because these "Westerners" simply dishonor the country, and the rest of Ukraine is against them!
Dmitry Belyaev:
You are watching American television. What does American propaganda say about Ukraine?
Victor Bout:
This is just a propaganda textbook - malicious slander against Putin, denigration of Russia as an "aggressor" and "occupying force." Reporters from CNN, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNBC are thrown in to find some dirt. Only screams are heard about Putin's plans - "we must punish him and Russia."
Nobody allows even a word to be said to the inhabitants of Donetsk or Kharkov. They find some girl from the Maidan, who knows English well, who, with tears in her eyes, broadcasts something like "We are terrified, we are afraid of Putin, please save us ...". Brought into the light of naphthalene Madame Albright and Z. Brzezinski. It's funny, but you don't hear anything about who actually kindled the situation, supported, trained and financed the Nazis from the Maidan, signed an agreement with the legally elected president and then, instead of following it, decided to kill him ...
Nobody even admits the idea that Russia has its own national interests and the right to protect its people. Nobody talks about how it happened that most of the Ukrainian army in Crimea on the very first day went over to the side of Russia. Nobody talks about how the Nazis tortured and killed innocent people who disagreed with them (from the central apparatus of the Party of Regions in Kiev, the leader of the communists in Lvov, and so on).
This is a typical lie - the West can recognize Kosovo, the invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan, the bombing of Serbia, even the British war over the Falkland Islands. And Russia has no right to defend its people and regain what historically belonged to it? Who has the moral right not to recognize the Crimean referendum? Does the West think it can force the Crimeans to obey their rules? Or do they think they can force the population of eastern Ukraine to submit to the EU and NATO and fight Russia? What a historical ignorance, what a false statement.
Another common view is that "Putin lives in his own world and has lost touch with reality." What are you talking about?
I just want to say that history will put everything in its place. Russia will nobly and unshakably stand up for justice, truth and peace. “Those who come to us with a sword will die by the sword,” said Saint Alexander Nevsky. We have never been slaves to the West, and we will never become them. Long live great Russia!
Dmitry Belyaev:
Our Foreign Ministry has taken a firm stance to defend Russians outside of Russia. Do you think this will help in your case?
Victor Bout:
I think this is a tipping point. I am sure that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will change its intonations and wording - and will begin not to ask, but to demand. I hope that soon they will catch a couple of spies for whom they will exchange me and Konstantin. Because the so-called US justice system is now only a show and violation of the justice of real American principles. Here, mainly, political prisoners of the "free world" who tried to insist on the implementation of their Constitution.
My best wishes to all readers from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus - Holy Russia!).
Thank you for the translation of the interview Natalia Golovakhawho always kindly helps me with the translation of the blog materials.
I hope, dear readers, it was interesting for you to know Viktor Bout's attitude to recent events, as well as to inquire about his stay in an American prison.
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 gun baron 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 “I 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 offense to his citizens."
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, indeed, 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? nikolai Petrov, leading expert of the Carnegie Moscow Center.
"SP": - Nikolai Vladimirovich, from the point of view of the United States, is there more politics in the Bout case 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.
How the Russian special services patronized Bout is unknown to anyone. 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 an end, 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 nothing to do with government agencies. The Foreign Ministry, it turns out, cares about an abstract compatriot. But it is clear that if this does not succeed, if we do not agree 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 when catching opponents (for example, Bout), while 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 are related to another area - corporate punishment of traitors. Such punishments deliberately make - and we are not alone - demonstratively 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 would 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 be 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 solved within the next months ...
To what extent does the noise surrounding the "Booth case" correspond to its scale in the global 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. And businessmen in the USA, 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, compromising evidence on the leadership of Russia and people associated with the leadership of the military-industrial complex, the armed forces of Russia.
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 have found 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 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.
Victor A. Booth (born January 13, 1967, Dushanbe, Tajik SSR) - businessman, has Russian citizenship. Found guilty by a New York jury of illegal arms trade, conspiracy to murder American citizens, attempting to sell missiles and supporting terrorism through cooperation with the FARC group. Among the media, his nicknames are widespread "the arms baron" and "the merchant of death". On April 5, 2012, a federal court in New York sentenced Booth to 25 years in prison.
Biography of Victor Bout
early years
In high school he studied German and Esperanto. Studied at the Kazan Suvorov Military School. In 1985, after an unsuccessful attempt to enter MGIMO, he was drafted into the army, he served in the military in Transcarpathia, after demobilization in 1987 he entered the Military Red Banner Institute of the USSR Ministry of Defense in Moscow, after which from 1989 to 1991 he served as a military translator. a radio operator in the Vitebsk regiment of military transport aviation, repeatedly performing flight missions in Angola and other African countries. In 1989-1990 he was a translator for the Soviet military mission in Mozambique, where he met his future wife Alla at a party-Komsomol meeting.
Business
In 1991 he opened his first firm and became an aviation broker. In 1992 he left for South Africa, where he started organizing air transportation. In a newspaper interview, he claimed that he had lived in the United Arab Emirates since 1993, but "never attempted to emigrate from Russia or change citizenship." His airline at Sharjah Airport transported flowers, household goods and legal military cargo, as well as transported French and Belgian military peacekeepers. In 1996 she delivered Russian fighters to Malaysia.
By the mid-1990s, the first media allegations that Bout's business included illegal arms trade in countries subject to international embargoes were reported. The buyers pointed to the governments and guerrilla groups of countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Togo, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. The reason for such assumptions was the testimony of the pilots that the cargo was always in boarded up boxes. The Russian press suggested that Bout could have been an unofficial dealer of Rosvooruzheniye and one of the important secret carriers of the Russian Federation.
In 1995 he took part in the negotiations on the release of the Russian crew of the Il-76 aircraft captured in Afghanistan.
In 1995-1998 he carried out his business from Belgium, but in connection with the initiated investigation of his activities by law enforcement agencies, he moved to the United Arab Emirates, where the office of his airline Air Cess Liberia is located, which owns more than 50 aircraft in different countries of the world.
Mentioned in connection with the illegal supply of weapons and ammunition in circumvention of UN sanctions in the reports of the UN Security Council (2000), Amnesty International (2005 and 2006), the US State Department.
However, since 2003, companies owned or controlled by Bout have been supplying supplies for the US military in Iraq.
In November 2011, during a search of the Libyan intelligence headquarters in Tripoli, documents were found that indicate Bout's contacts with Libyan officials dating back to 2003.
Booth admits his involvement in the transportation of weapons to "hot spots", but denies the trade as such. He declared:
I airlifted weapons to the governments of Angola, Congo-Brazzaville and Rwanda, and to the Rabbani government in Afghanistan during the war with the Taliban. But I did not buy or sell weapons.
Charges and arrest
In 2001, due to a growing wave of suspicions, Bout had to leave the UAE. In 2002, Belgium was the first Western state to accuse him of diamond smuggling and money laundering in the amount of about $ 300 million over the previous seven years and put Bout on the international wanted list. Fearing arrest, Bout settled in Russia in 2002, trying not to travel abroad, not to draw attention to himself and, according to his wife, stopped doing the aviation business. Nevertheless, based on a Belgian order, in 2002 the UN imposed a ban on Bout's movements, and in 2005, together with the United States, demanded to freeze his accounts, as well as all companies and individuals associated with him. Booth claimed to have lost about $ 17 million as a result of UN sanctions.
In the late 1990s, the US government launched an investigation into Viktor Bout's activities. In 2006, US President George W. Bush signed a decree freezing Bout's assets due to the fact that his activities threaten the implementation of US foreign policy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In 2008, agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), disguised as Colombian rebels, lured Bout to Bangkok, ostensibly to conclude a deal for the supply of modern weapons, and made tape recordings incriminating Bout, which later became evidence in an American court. On March 6, 2008, at the Sofitel Silom Road Hotel, Bout was detained by the Thai police. The arrest warrant was issued by a Thai court on charges of assisting Colombian terrorists posing as American agents.
Together with Viktor Bout, Andrei (Andrew) Smulian, a British citizen and his possible accomplice, was detained in Thailand, but then released. It is assumed that Smulian at that time collaborated with the American special services, acting as an intermediary in negotiations between them with Bout.
Extradition
On August 11, 2009, a Thai court refused to extradite the United States, citing the decision by the insufficient evidence of guilt presented to the court, as well as by the fact that the Colombian radical organization FARC, to which, according to the prosecution, Booth was selling weapons, is political and not terrorist, as the United States claimed. based on the decision in 2001 by the US State Department and later by the European Union to include it in the list of terrorist organizations. However, on September 2 of that year, the Bangkok Criminal Court refused to release him on bail.
On February 17, 2010, the New York prosecutor's office brought new charges against two planes in the United States, which Booth wanted to buy along with his American counterpart Richard Chichakli.
On August 20, 2010, the Thai Court of Appeal, in response to a request from the Thai prosecutor's office, ordered the US authorities to grant the extradition request Victor Bout ... The court decision was challenged by Bout's lawyer, after which other court procedures took some time. However, by mid-November, the Thai authorities made the final decision to extradite Viktor Bout to the United States.
On November 16, 2010 at 13:30 local time (9:30 Moscow time), a small business jet "Gulfstream" with Viktor Bout left Thailand on a charter flight. Booth was accompanied on the flight by six US Drug Enforcement Administration personnel. The flight from Bangkok to New York took over 20 hours.
On the morning of November 17, 2010, the plane with Booth landed at the US National Guard's Stuart Air Force Base near Newburgh, New York, 60 kilometers north of New York. He was taken to court in Manhattan in an armored car in a convoy of five escort jeeps. He did not admit his guilt. A judge for the Southern District of New York ordered him to be held in custody at the Park Row Detention Center. This isolation ward, connected to the court by an underground passage, is called the "VIP prison". Bernard Madoff, who stole billions of dollars, was sitting here, who was involved in the "spy" scandal between Russia and America in 2010, including Anna Chapman, Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted in 2011 for drug trafficking.
Litigation in the USA
On October 11, 2011, the US v. Bout trial was launched. The case was heard by the Southern District Court of New York (Ukrainian), located in Manhattan, New York. The trial was led by District Judge Shira A. Shendlin ( english: Shira A. Scheindlin).
During the hearings, seven prosecution witnesses spoke. The defense did not provide their witnesses, and Booth refused to participate in testifying.
Booth was charged 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.
The accused pleaded not guilty on any of the points. Since Bout also did not make a deal with justice, then - if the jury finds him guilty - the Russian faces at least 25 years in prison on each count.
In October, during the trial, a group of deputies of the Russian parliament sent a letter to Judge Shira Shendlin, which stated that “in business circles, among colleagues, friends and relatives of Viktor Bout, there has long been an opinion of him as honest, respectable, a highly moral and responsive person and a law-abiding, responsible, reliable entrepreneur. "
On November 2, 2011, the jury unanimously delivered a guilty verdict to Bout. Bout was found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to kill American citizens, conspiracy to kill American officials, conspiracy to sell missiles and conspiracy to support terrorism through cooperation with the Colombian FARC group. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, after the verdict was passed, the conditions of Bout's detention in prison, already too harsh, became even harsher.
The verdict is expected to be announced on April 5, 2012. The prosecutor's office demands to sentence Bout to life imprisonment. Himself Booth also awaiting a life sentence.
Earlier - before the start of the trial - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Russian authorities would continue to support Viktor Bout. After the announcement of the verdict, on November 3, 2011, an official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Moscow would seek Bout's return to Russia. According to Bout himself (Feb 2012), "the position of the Foreign Ministry confirms that Russia has figured out everything and demands the application of international law, and not its replacement with the right of the strong."
Meanwhile, in Russia, Bout has never been in the field of view of law enforcement agencies, his activities have never been the subject of investigations. This is probably due to the fact that in the territory of the Russian Federation Bout was not noticed in anything criminal.
On April 5, 2012, a federal court in New York sentenced Booth to 25 years in prison. After sentencing, transferred to Brooklyn General Security Prison.
The Russian Foreign Ministry harshly criticized the verdict, calling the case against Bout unfounded, biased and politically ordered, and promised to take all measures to return Bout to Russia. Booth's topic will become one of the priorities in the Russian-American negotiation process.
On April 11, 2012, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced in Washington that Russia would seek the return of V.Buta and K. Yaroshenko, convicted in the United States, to their homeland.
In May 2012, the US Federal Bureau of Prisons decided to send Booth to serve his sentence in the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.
Support promotions
On October 11, 2011, the public organization Trade Union of Russian Citizens organized a picket outside the US Consulate in St. Petersburg with the slogans “Return Viktor Bout” and “We demand a fair trial of Viktor Bout”. Similar actions were also held in Moscow, Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg.
On December 27, 2011, the public organization Trade Union of Russian Citizens held a mass picket outside the US Consulate in St. Petersburg with a demand to return Bout to his homeland. This time Alla Bout joined the activists of the Trade Union of Russian Citizens. The indefinite picketing, according to the organizers, will continue until Bout returns to Russia.
On March 27, 2012, another mass picket was held near the US Consulate in St. Petersburg in support of Viktor Bout, 30 activists of the public organization Trade Union of Russian Citizens came to Furshtatskaya Street with flags and posters and waited for a meeting with the consul. Their main question was: why is Russian Bout still being held in the US? " Earlier on March 22, the organization's delegations in Moscow and St. Petersburg handed letters to US Ambassador Michael McFaul and US Consul General Bruce Turner insisting on a personal meeting to discuss Booth's release. In Moscow, a picket with similar demands was also held at the US Embassy.
On April 24, 2012, members of the Trade Union again unfurled flags and banners demanding the return of a Russian citizen to their homeland at the US Consulate in St. Petersburg. “Shame on the kidnappers!”, “Freedom to the citizen of Russia!”, “Obama, return the Nobel Peace Prize” - the posters read. For an hour, the picketers handed out leaflets to passers-by stating that union members considered Bout's case a political order.
A family
Wife since 1992 - Alla Vladimirovna But (born 1970, Leningrad), artist, designer, fashion designer, hereditary Petersburg woman. Graduate of the Higher Art and Industrial School named after Mukhina, worked at the Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics. Victor Bout met his future wife in the late 1980s in Mozambique, where he worked as a translator from Portuguese in the Soviet military mission. For Alla, this was the second marriage.
Daughter - Elizabeth (b. 1994, United Arab Emirates).
The elder brother and former partner, Sergei Anatolyevich Bout, continues to conduct legal aviation business in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates and Bulgaria.
Image in culture
In 2005, Booth became the prototype for the protagonist of the movie "The Gun Baron" (USA). His role was played by Nicolas Cage. According to Dmitry Khalezov, this film has nothing to do with Bout's activities and is an integral part of his discrediting by the US intelligence services.
He was the prototype for the coordinator and sponsor of the escape of Russian pilots from the captivity of the Taliban in the film "Kandahar".
He became the prototype for the arms dealer and supplier Andrei Shut in the novel Equator by Andrei Tsaplienko.
In 2010, French writer Gerard de Villiers wrote the novel The Bangkok Trap, in which Victor Bout served as the protagonist.
Poems about Booth were published by Junna Moritz in 2010.
- Bout speaks many languages \u200b\u200bincluding English, French, Portuguese, Farsi, Zulu, Kosa.
- It is included in the "black list" compiled by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department. The bank accounts of those on this list are blocked and Americans are prohibited from doing business with them.