Spy Wars (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 7 - Merchant of Death - full transcript
On March the 6th
2008, viktor bout,
A former soviet military intelligence officer
And billionaire protected by the russian state
Touched down in bangkok.
He was there to shake hands
on a substantial arms deal.
Yet viktor bout's arrival in thailand marked
The closing stages of operation relentless.
This is the story of one
of the most audacious sting
Operations ever conducted
during the war on terror.
How a team of undercover
operatives pitted their wits
Against a notorious criminal
known as the merchant of death.
In August 1991, a group of communist hardliners
Had staged a coup against soviet president
And general secretary,
mikhail gorbachev.
But a determined group of democrats Had
gathered at the russian parliament.
And boris yeltsin, The new president of the
russian soviet Socialist federal republic,
Was about to have
his finest hour.
This symbolic moment marked the
beginning Of the end of the U.S.S.R.
On December the 25th, mikhail gorbachev
resigned And the soviet union collapsed.
At that moment, the rules of
the geopolitical game changed.
Suddenly, there
was a new russia;
Capitalist and chaotic, a
place where money was made.
Those with an entrepreneurial spirit took
advantage Of the chaos to seize state assets
And sell them off to
the highest bidder.
Many would become
millionaires, many times over.
One of those men
was viktor bout.
And he would become one of the most famous
Or infamous russian businessmen in history.
Western intelligence agencies believe Viktor bout
was born in 1967, and grew up in tajikistan,
A remote part of
the soviet union.
Much else about bout's
early life seems a mystery.
Viktor bout has a very shadowy
Hard to pin down background, It's like
trying to pin jelly to the ceiling.
He had different
passports and different names.
He was very good at
covering his tracks.
He didn't make a huge amount
of noise to the outside world.
Analysts later learned that bout attended The
soviet military institute of foreign languages.
A feeder academy for the country's
Vast intelligence apparatus.
Well, he was very
gifted with languages.
He spoke english, portuguese, russian, Several
of the native african languages as well.
People would talk about
how fluent he was.
One would assume that given his language
skills And the places he was based,
He was involved with the
intelligence services.
In 1987, as a 20 year old Graduate of
the institute, bout was sent to africa,
With a group of soviet
military advisors.
We were not able to track very well what
He actually did in angola and mozambique
And what his role was there.
He calls himself an
intelligence officer.
Then, in 1991, when the old communist System
collapsed, bout found himself without a job.
But as an ex-military intelligence officer
With language skills and kremlin contacts,
He was perfectly placed
to make a killing.
He understood what a market was.
He understood how to access that market and he
understood How to make money from that market.
He was a true visionary in the sense of
coming out Of a system in which capitalism
Had never been rewarded
or was not understood.
With the collapse of the soviet union,
Basically, everything was for sale.
For an undisclosed fee, bout acquired a small
Fleet of soviet military transport aircraft.
Gary busch got to know viktor bout
Flying freight in south africa.
Where on earth do
you think a man of 22,
23 years old is gonna get
enough money to buy an airplane?
He didn't get it because
he had the money to invest.
How got it because the russian
government Gave them to him to use.
Setting up a freight business In the
united arab emirates, bout got rich quick,
Importing western
goods to moscow.
Within a year, analysts estimate he was flying
220 tons of cargo into russia, every day.
But it didn't take him long to
realize Where the real money was.
Viktor bout was the
go-to guy for arms.
He is the guy that would
supply any weapon system
Pretty much within a limited timeframe at
a certain cost And could get it in there.
The russian state had a vast supply
Of kalashnikov assault rifles.
Bout knew how to secure them, And
exactly where he could sell them.
Africa.
Bout had lived in
africa for five years.
As civil wars erupted across the continent
in the 1990s, He cashed in on the chaos.
Bout was very good at the logistics
Of putting this together.
We worked on different
sides of the street,
Viktor worked for the bad guys,
I worked for the good guys.
Viktor was very capable because
he didn't get flustered.
Viktor bout wasn't
supplying just one conflict,
He was importing weapons
to war zones across africa.
His most loyal customers
were former client-states
Of the soviet union; rebels,
warlords and dictators
In sierra leone, the
congo, angola and liberia.
His business model was
really straightforward,
Make as much money as I
can and do it at all costs.
A multi-millionaire
by the age of 30
With a vast aviation empire, Bout's
business expanded at a phenomenal rate.
He employed more than 300 people supplying assault
rifles, Ammunition, land mines and tanks.
Bout's business thrived
because he was prepared
To supply arms to both
sides of the same conflict.
In many situations he was flying weapons
To the government And also to the rebels.
And both sides would know,
but they had no other person
Who could provide the level
of service that he could.
And for clients without ready
cash, He was happy to barter;
Arms in exchange for
local commodities.
And often they'd say to the rebels, for example,
"look, we know you don't have the cash,
"but we don't want the cash,
we want your diamonds."
And they would arrive at the bush airstrip,
Deliver their cargo of weaponry,
The cargo of weaponry would have a certain value
And they'd fly out with a cargo of diamonds.
There is a certain amount of ego
That goes with the job description.
Viktor bout undoubtedly
would've enjoyed the notoriety.
In under five years, Viktor bout had
a devastating impact across africa.
In the congo alone, the brutal civil war
Left an estimated five million people dead.
More than in any other
conflict since world war ii.
His impact was, It was like an
earthquake across the continent.
The costs in human
lives are in the millions.
The supply of kalashnikov's, rpgs, Heavy weapons
systems was fundamental to the conflicts
Lasting as long as they did.
Viktor bout brought vast amounts
Of destruction and devastation.
Visiting the amputee camp in free town,
Interviewing people that had been brutalized,
That had been forced to commit murder,
To even kill their own parents,
Really brought home the horror of the activities
Of people like viktor bout and the deadly trade
That they plied
throughout africa.
Viktor bout ultimately was The most
successful illegal arms trader going.
Secretly, western intelligence agencies Had
been monitoring the supply of illegal weapons
And tracking the
man behind them.
Peter hain was the uk's minister for state In the
foreign and commonwealth office at the time.
Almost daily I was seeing these intelligence
reports About bout and I was saying to myself,
"what are we gonna
do about this?"
The only thing I can do is to use parliamentary
privilege As a minister and name viktor bout.
So, on November the 7th 2000, In a
speech to the house of commons,
Hain conjured up a moniker for bout
That resonated around the world.
Viktor bout is indeed the chief sanctions buster
At the present time, a real merchant of death,
A real merchant of death,
a real merchant of death.
If you can come up with a phrase that perfectly
captures Something you're trying to describe,
Then you can make an
impact The name stuck.
Peter hain's speech was sort of A
fundamental point in people like myself,
Journalists being able
to write about him.
It gave us legal cover to be able to name him,
And it gave us a great little name for him,
The merchant of death
which was very catchy.
And then, all of a sudden, People
in the US intelligence community,
Other intelligence communities started really
fixating On who is this viktor bout guy.
Former soviet military intelligence operative,
Viktor bout was now a major target
Of U.S. And british
intelligence services.
And they would soon discover that his arms
dealing Had spread into new territory.
One that would eventually
be his undoing.
By now, viktor bout's business dealings
Had made him one of the world's most
Notorious weapons suppliers.
Fueling brutal conflicts And
arming african warlords.
And nobody had
tried to stop him.
But bout was about to
acquire another client.
One that would place him firmly in the
crosshairs Of the west's intelligence agencies.
In afghanistan, The bloody conflict between the
mujahideen And the soviet union of the 1980s
Had descended into
a brutal civil war.
Viktor bout had already provided
The afghan government with arms.
And was on the brink of a new deal, For the supply
of three million rounds of ak-47 ammunition.
That was a legitimate
business to be involved in,
He was flying in weaponry to a, you could
argue, A democratic elected government,
And why should he
not be doing so?
But a little-known islamic group Had
risen to prominence in the region.
They were called the taliban, And
they wanted bout's attention.
The taliban forced viktor
bout's aircraft to land on this
Little dirt airstrip in
the middle of nowhere,
Took the crew hostage and took three million
rounds Of ammunition for themselves.
Bout flew to afghanistan in person, To
convince the taliban to release his crew.
He was granted a rare audience
With taliban leader, mullah omar.
The story goes omar had a
price for freeing bout's crew.
He wanted weapons for his war
against the afghan government.
Bout obviously realized,
And perhaps cut a deal,
That there was money to be made from running
weaponry To both sides of the equation.
It was the start
of a lucrative partnership.
In the first few months of 1995,
The taliban took control of much
Of the southern and western regions of afghanistan,
Likely using weapons supplied by bout.
At the time, it went
almost unnoticed.
But in 2005, the U.S. Treasury
would reveal that bout
Had made around $50 million
from his deals with the taliban.
Radical islam is not really
on Anybody's radar screen.
It was viewed I think generally
As just massive chaos out there.
Then, everything changed.
After 9/11 of course the
U.S. Government recognized
This unbelievable convergence
of crime and terror.
Our war or
terror begins with al qaeda.
U.S. President george w. Bush, Named osama bin laden,
leader of al qaeda, Public enemy number one.
On September the 20th 2001, The U.S.
Launched its war on terror.
Every nation, in every region,
Now has a decision to make.
Either you are with us, or
you are with the terrorists.
Within a month
of the terrorist attacks
On the twin towers, the united
states invaded afghanistan.
And it wasn't just the
taliban the U.S. Was hunting.
They also vowed to bring those responsible For
arming radical islamic groups to justice.
That kind of put bout in the spotlight, Because
the U.S. Government was so focused on al qaeda
And the taliban and actually going
after These people in afghanistan,
And it was pretty apparent
that viktor bout played a role.
On February the 18th 2002, A red
notice was issued for bout;
A global arrest warrant, For weapons
trafficking and money laundering.
I think that when interpol red notice
comes out, Then it's like uh oh,
I could actually you
know, get arrested.
But by now, viktor bout
Had retreated to russia.
Former intelligence officer,
vladimir putin was president.
And putin prided himself on his loyalty
To former intelligence comrades.
He offered bout safe haven.
The russian state was saying That they
didn't know where viktor bout was,
So that showed the level of complicity the russians
Had decided to take or the level of defense
They had decided
to put over him.
From the safety of moscow, Bout
surprised everyone by embarking
On a pr offensive
to clear his name.
And he took the pragmatic decision, That
he had nothing to lose by going public
And trying to win the
public relations battle.
He went out to clear his name, and to try
to say, Look, I'm just a supplier of goods
To people who have a need,
that was his argument.
But in may
2004, came a tipping point.
In the initial chaos following
the U.S. Led coalition's
Invasion of iraq to overthrow saddam hussein,
The pentagon used whatever freight companies
Were on the ground, to deliver military
supplies To their frontline troops.
One of those companies could
be traced back to viktor bout.
Bout seemed to have pulled off the ultimate
dodge, To move from hunted international
Arms dealer to armaments Delivery man
for the U.S. Department of defense.
The world's most wanted arms dealer,
Who was being hunted by interpol,
Flying in supplies to some
of the most top secret
And secure air bases we had
in any war zone of anywhere.
Later, investigators would reveal that bout Had
made an estimated $60 million from the pentagon,
On top of the 50 million he'd
made from arming the taliban.
The U.S. Government's embarrassment
Made them all the more
Determined to bring the
merchant of death to justice.
And in the summer of 2007, They turned
to the drug enforcement agency for help.
Derek maltz was director of the dea's
Special operations division at the time.
We had a international
bilateral investigative team
At the special operations division that enabled
us To go after the biggest and baddest threats
To bring them into america
to face the rule of law.
And we were asked by the white
house, To go after viktor bout.
We obviously took
it as a challenge.
They needed a means to lure viktor bout
Out of moscow and away from russia,
Away from where he was safe, To somewhere
that he could be hunted down and arrested.
The dea knew only
one thing would tempt bout
To leave the safety of
moscow; a lucrative arms deal.
So they devised a top secret undercover
sting, Code-named operation relentless.
The sting idea put together by the dea, Was that
the team should pose as if they were guerrillas,
Fighters for the farc, terrorist
organization in columbia.
And the reason they chose the farc, Was
because it was known, at the time,
That the farc were actually seeking to buy
Any number of surface - To-air missiles.
The farc was a guerrilla army using money From
drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion
To fund their war on the
colombian government.
Under U.S. Law, the unauthorized
sale of surface-to-air
Missiles carried an
automatic 25 year jail term.
The aim of operation relentless was to
record bout Offering to supply them.
To run the operation against bout, Derek maltz
chose one of the dea's leading case agents,
An ex-marine with two decades Of
undercover experience, wim brown.
He was a very articulate
and smart individual.
Very calculating, and you
could see why he was very good
At what he did, 'cause
he's a people's person.
Brown realized he would only get close to bout
Through a complex chain of sources and informants.
We did our research,
we looked through our
Dea intelligence systems to see if there was
any reference To viktor bout, and there was.
And we noted that the case
agent there had an individual
That had provided information
specifically about viktor.
Brown contacted this individual, A confidential
source, who passed on the name of a man
Who became the first
crucial link in the chain.
A man named mike snow, who's
image cannot be revealed.
Mike snow was a bush pilot back in the
day, He was a former sas guy I believe
With the british military, Very sharp witted,
told it like it is And told it like it was.
Crucially the dea learned that mike snow Met
viktor bout in south africa in the '90s,
And the two had remained
in contact ever since.
Mike snow spoke to viktor bout in
a very blunt And unafraid tone.
And bout being a russian, and being from the
background He's from, rather respected that.
So, they kind of had a mutual
respect for each other.
Realizing the importance of recruiting
snow As an informant, in September 2007,
Wim brown approached him,
in a neutral location.
We said "mike, you know, if you're not
interested "in helping we totally understand,"
And then the next morning we met again and mike
said "I already made a phone call and boris,"
Which was the nickname for viktor,
"was still involved in the game."
So, he showed a complete
interest in doing this.
He'd seen what weapons have
done throughout africa.
He knew that viktor had moved
weapons in and out of africa
And I think he felt a need
and responsibility to help.
But this was only the beginning.
They still faced their most
difficult challenge yet.
How to lure viktor bout away From
the protection of the kremlin.
By now, dea investigators were one month Into an
elaborate sting operation To catch notorious arms
Dealer and former russian military
Intelligence operative, viktor bout.
Before they could set the op in motion, They had
to get close to someone in bout's inner circle.
The dea's informant,
ex-sas pilot, mike snow,
Put forward the name of someone
who was very close to bout.
If there was one person in the world, Kind of
outside of russia and moscow, that bout trusted,
Who wasn't a russian,
it was andrew smulian.
A british citizen raised in south africa, Andrew
smulian helped to run bout's vast illegal arms
Business in africa in the 1990s.
Bout regarded smulian as a
mentor, Swahili for grandfather.
When viktor bout was running his airlines Out
of south africa flying everything and anything
All over africa to all different conflict zones,
Andrew smulian was his second in command,
Running the business.
But smulian was now broke, Which
made him desperate and vulnerable.
So in November 2007, snow made contact with
smulian, Telling him there was a deal to be had.
Smulian took the bait and agreed to meet
snow And his associates, face to face.
Now the dea had to move fast.
They realized they would
have To put together a team,
With the credentials to make
bout believe that they were
Working in that dark shadowy
world in which he operated.
You know, you use a
thief to catch a thief.
The dea, very pragmatically, Had
taken any number of individuals
Who had been former drugs dealers, Or
arms dealers and cut deals with them.
You may call them
spies or whatever.
We use them to go in and
infiltrate into organizations.
They could do things
that agents can't do.
We can put 'em in to
high risk situations.
It's their choice.
Brown pinpointed
the perfect undercover
Operative to play the role of
a weapons buyer for the farc.
A man the dea codenamed carlos.
Carlos became known as the king of sting,
The go-to guy if you wanted someone to walk
Into the fire posing as an arms dealer,
Or drugs dealer, or a terrorist,
And convince the bad guy that
he was actually for real.
Carlos had served
in guatemalan military
Intelligence before becoming
embroiled in drug trafficking.
But he decided to switch sides.
He went to dea in guatemala and just said,
"listen, this is what I've been involved in
"and I wanna get out of it."
We created a relationship over the years,
And phenomenal hard worker who really
Did it for the right reasons.
In January 2008, carlos was sent by the dea To
meet with andrew smulian for the first time,
At a restaurant on the island of
curacao, Off the venezuelan coast.
It was to introduce carlos To
andrew smulian to sell this,
To say, "look it, these
guys are for real."
Carlos agreed to be interviewed For this
documentary, but his identity remains protected,
So you will hear his voice,
but not see his face.
Carlos' mission was to persuade andrew
smulian To arrange a face to face meeting
With viktor bout himself,
outside of russia.
Andrew got on the phone immediately To viktor
bout, that he had something very important
To tell him and that
this was a great deal.
For 11 days, carlos and the dea
Heard nothing back from bout.
Then, smulian made contact.
He confirmed that bout would agree To
a face to face meeting with carlos.
The two sides arranged to meet in
romania, A former soviet bloc state,
Where the dea believed
bout would feel safe.
What he didn't know was that romania
Was the perfect place for the dea
To conduct an undercover sting.
We thought that we can get viktor bout To come
into romania that would solve all our problems.
Their extradition process
was very efficient and short.
And if we were able to
arrest viktor in romania,
We knew that the process was
a maximum of roughly 45 days.
The operation relentless team Flew to
bucharest, set up a surveillance station,
And waited for
viktor bout's arrival
But almost immediately,
a problem emerged.
Viktor said there's a
problem for me to go to romania.
Russian citizens
need a visa to enter romania
And bout had an interpol
arrest warrant to his name.
Days were going past where viktor was
trying To get his visa to come in.
Viktor was on the phone with andrew
discussing His problems about getting a visa,
And for us that was our tipping point to say,
It's possible that this case is going down.
Carlos knew at this point, A genuine
illegal arms buyer would play hard ball.
So he pretended to run out of
patience, and pulled the plug.
So, we had to regroup and say,
"okay we're pulling outta romania,
"we're gonna pull
outta this deal."
Now, they'd have to sit and wait To see
if bout would try to resurrect the deal.
Just six days later, Bout sent an email
directly to carlos's undercover account.
When we got the email, to
me it was like a home run,
It was like this is insane that viktor bout
actually Sent an email back to the source.
The agents were like, "I can't
believe that this guy actually used
"his real name to open
up a g-mail account."
I think he believed
that he was untouchable.
Soon after, viktor bout called
carlos To set up another meeting,
In a location that didn't
require a visa; bangkok.
This is a recording of that conversation,
In spanish, taped by carlos.
The meeting was to be in a bangkok
hotel, In just a few days time.
The dea went over the thailand,
And my agents went over there,
They formed an unbelievable powerful team
With the guys on the ground and made sure
That the thai police
had all the information.
Bout, it seemed, Was looking
forward to leaving moscow.
He had been sanctioned and he had been
sitting In mother russia for a long time
And he wanted to get
out and play I think.
Shortly after 10:00 a.M. On March the 6th, The
world's most notorious arms dealer touched down
At bangkok
international airport.
He was being watched from
the moment he landed.
They had to do very
covert type of surveillance.
They had somebody in a toll booth, They
had another guy on the side of the road
Making like his car
was like broken down.
We were so close, we didn't
want viktor bout to get away.
Bout headed to the hotel where carlos
And his dea team were waiting.
The dea had stationed personnel Throughout
the hotel, and converted a room
On the 20th floor
into a command center.
The thai police placed
an armed unit on standby.
We had carlos in place, I said okay
it's game time, Let's make it happen.
At just after 11:30, Viktor bout
walked into the hotel lobby.
He believed he was about to shake
hands On a massive arms deal.
This was it.
It was make or break time for one of the
biggest Stings in the dea's history.
To build a watertight case against
Notorious arms dealer viktor bout,
Dea undercover operative
carlos, had a clear objective.
To record, via the wire he was wearing, Evidence
which could be placed before a us court.
He was very proud in the hotel room to mention
how The U.S. Is an enemy of his as well,
So he was very happy to know that these weapons
Were gonna take out helicopters of U.S. Pilots.
Bout was recorded offering to supply
Carlos with a staggering array of weapons.
We're talking about 5,000 ak-47s, We're talking
about russian like gun and rifle parts,
We're talking about unmanned aircraft,
We're talking about manpads,
We're talking about three
million rounds of ammunition.
This was a big deal.
$20 million, 15, $20 million.
But carlos needed bout To
offer something specific.
One of the list of armaments strictly prohibited
From international trading or exchange.
The sale of surface-to-air missiles Is a 25
year minimum Mandatory sentence all in its own.
So, it was important for viktor to say
I'm providing surface - To-air missiles.
At the meeting, bout claimed he
could Supply around 700 missiles,
At a cost in excess
of $120,000, each.
15 to $20 million to start off.
Bout even boasted to carlos Of his
close links to the russian government.
He talked about getting ministers
To sign off on paperwork.
What does a minister have to
do with signing paperwork?
Recorded through his wire, Carlos now
had all the evidence the dea needed.
It was time to take bout down.
But when carlos gave the pre-agreed signal To
the listening agents to move in, a phone call,
There was immediately a problem.
We knew that they went up to reserve
conference room On the 27th floor.
We just had no idea
what room it was.
So it was a moment of
like, where are these guys?
Do we have the right floor,
are we in the right area?
Carlos played for time.
Everybody was concerned.
Did we lose this, had
they changed their mind,
Are we up too late, are we
there too late or whatever?
That's it, let's go.
Hands up, hands up!
So convinced was bout that the weapons deal Was
genuine, He hadn't even bothered to arm himself.
Bout was taken into
custody by the thai police.
After almost two decades of
global weapons trafficking,
The man known as the merchant
of death came face to face
With the dea team dedicated
to bringing him to justice.
The agents and myself said okay, Viktor
just so you're aware the individuals
That you've been meeting with, That andrew's
been meeting with over the last three months
Are all sources
that work for dea.
All of it's been recorded.
And viktor looked matter of fact and he
said, "I guess you hold all the cards."
And it was a moment of okay,
viktor knew that he was done.
Now the dea
had one final challenge.
Getting bout back to the
united states to face charges.
And that's when viktor bout's powerful
friends In the kremlin stepped in.
And the one-time intelligence agent
Became a pawn in a bigger battle.
It was like a power struggle Going on between
the thais, The russians, the united states.
And, of course, it
became very political.
It was outrageous that they
were Blocking his extradition
When it was absolutely clear cut that this guy
Was a murderous applier and trader in blood.
I guess their biggest fear is viktor
bout Potentially cooperating in america.
What could this guy disclose
to save his own butt?
Sources told the dea of bout's
Clandestine meetings in the prison,
With undisclosed
russian officials.
This was clearly not the consulate visit, This
was much higher and this was at I believe
At high levels within
the russian government.
And I think they were doing
everything in their mind,
To protect him but also
to protect themselves.
For more than two years, Russian and american
authorities fought over bout's fate.
All the while, viktor
bout revealed nothing.
We tried to get viktor
to cooperate at the time.
It was more entrenched in him not to
cooperate, Especially with the united states
Because of the cold war
for all those years.
Finally, in 2010, the thai authorities
Agreed to bout's extradition to the u. S..
On November the 15th, A team of
dea agents arrived in bangkok.
The following day, so concerned there could
Be interference from russian interests,
The dea gave him bulletproof clothing
To wear on his way to the airport.
We got viktor
successfully onto the plane.
And I remember viktor sitting
in there in the corner,
And he had earphones on,
and listening to music.
You got the guy out of thailand, You
fought through this extradition process,
You got him on the plane, now he's on the turf
Of the united states, that was a great feeling.
In court in new york, Bout faced four terrorism
offenses, Including conspiring to kill americans
And conspiring to sell
surface-to-air missiles.
His old friend and business
associate andrew smulian
Testified against him, in
exchange for a lighter sentence,
And the hope of a place on a
witness protection program.
Throughout, bout
remained silent.
He didn't say a word in his defense at
trial, He didn't call a single witness.
And you have to
ask yourself, why?
That would have risked
revealing some of the secrets
Of the russian state, which
viktor bout and his compatriots
Knew that they were not
at liberty to reveal.
Because if you do that, if you do step out
of line, As far as moscow's concerned,
You have no route
back to russia ever.
On April the 5th 2012, Viktor bout
was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Guilty of the illegal supply of arms
To enemies of the united states.
It was the final act in one
of the most successful sting
Operations in recent american
intelligence history.
The dea and our counterparts around the
world Were successful in taking him off
The playing field and
putting him in a can.
I had seen some of the destruction that was
involved With the weapons that he provided.
So, for me it was a great satisfaction To
know that a guy like that was behind bars.
This was a man, the merchant of death,
Who needed to be put behind bars
And needed to be made an
example of for others.
Today, viktor bout resides In the united
states penitentiary In marion, illinois.
He is not eligible for
release until January 2030,
And is yet to reveal anything to the american
authorities About his kremlin backers.
Like a classic russian intelligence agent, Like a
classic spy, viktor bout went to his jail cell
Defiantly and in silence.
The russian foreign ministry vowed it will make
All necessary efforts to return viktor bout
To the motherland, at the
first available opportunity.
2008, viktor bout,
A former soviet military intelligence officer
And billionaire protected by the russian state
Touched down in bangkok.
He was there to shake hands
on a substantial arms deal.
Yet viktor bout's arrival in thailand marked
The closing stages of operation relentless.
This is the story of one
of the most audacious sting
Operations ever conducted
during the war on terror.
How a team of undercover
operatives pitted their wits
Against a notorious criminal
known as the merchant of death.
In August 1991, a group of communist hardliners
Had staged a coup against soviet president
And general secretary,
mikhail gorbachev.
But a determined group of democrats Had
gathered at the russian parliament.
And boris yeltsin, The new president of the
russian soviet Socialist federal republic,
Was about to have
his finest hour.
This symbolic moment marked the
beginning Of the end of the U.S.S.R.
On December the 25th, mikhail gorbachev
resigned And the soviet union collapsed.
At that moment, the rules of
the geopolitical game changed.
Suddenly, there
was a new russia;
Capitalist and chaotic, a
place where money was made.
Those with an entrepreneurial spirit took
advantage Of the chaos to seize state assets
And sell them off to
the highest bidder.
Many would become
millionaires, many times over.
One of those men
was viktor bout.
And he would become one of the most famous
Or infamous russian businessmen in history.
Western intelligence agencies believe Viktor bout
was born in 1967, and grew up in tajikistan,
A remote part of
the soviet union.
Much else about bout's
early life seems a mystery.
Viktor bout has a very shadowy
Hard to pin down background, It's like
trying to pin jelly to the ceiling.
He had different
passports and different names.
He was very good at
covering his tracks.
He didn't make a huge amount
of noise to the outside world.
Analysts later learned that bout attended The
soviet military institute of foreign languages.
A feeder academy for the country's
Vast intelligence apparatus.
Well, he was very
gifted with languages.
He spoke english, portuguese, russian, Several
of the native african languages as well.
People would talk about
how fluent he was.
One would assume that given his language
skills And the places he was based,
He was involved with the
intelligence services.
In 1987, as a 20 year old Graduate of
the institute, bout was sent to africa,
With a group of soviet
military advisors.
We were not able to track very well what
He actually did in angola and mozambique
And what his role was there.
He calls himself an
intelligence officer.
Then, in 1991, when the old communist System
collapsed, bout found himself without a job.
But as an ex-military intelligence officer
With language skills and kremlin contacts,
He was perfectly placed
to make a killing.
He understood what a market was.
He understood how to access that market and he
understood How to make money from that market.
He was a true visionary in the sense of
coming out Of a system in which capitalism
Had never been rewarded
or was not understood.
With the collapse of the soviet union,
Basically, everything was for sale.
For an undisclosed fee, bout acquired a small
Fleet of soviet military transport aircraft.
Gary busch got to know viktor bout
Flying freight in south africa.
Where on earth do
you think a man of 22,
23 years old is gonna get
enough money to buy an airplane?
He didn't get it because
he had the money to invest.
How got it because the russian
government Gave them to him to use.
Setting up a freight business In the
united arab emirates, bout got rich quick,
Importing western
goods to moscow.
Within a year, analysts estimate he was flying
220 tons of cargo into russia, every day.
But it didn't take him long to
realize Where the real money was.
Viktor bout was the
go-to guy for arms.
He is the guy that would
supply any weapon system
Pretty much within a limited timeframe at
a certain cost And could get it in there.
The russian state had a vast supply
Of kalashnikov assault rifles.
Bout knew how to secure them, And
exactly where he could sell them.
Africa.
Bout had lived in
africa for five years.
As civil wars erupted across the continent
in the 1990s, He cashed in on the chaos.
Bout was very good at the logistics
Of putting this together.
We worked on different
sides of the street,
Viktor worked for the bad guys,
I worked for the good guys.
Viktor was very capable because
he didn't get flustered.
Viktor bout wasn't
supplying just one conflict,
He was importing weapons
to war zones across africa.
His most loyal customers
were former client-states
Of the soviet union; rebels,
warlords and dictators
In sierra leone, the
congo, angola and liberia.
His business model was
really straightforward,
Make as much money as I
can and do it at all costs.
A multi-millionaire
by the age of 30
With a vast aviation empire, Bout's
business expanded at a phenomenal rate.
He employed more than 300 people supplying assault
rifles, Ammunition, land mines and tanks.
Bout's business thrived
because he was prepared
To supply arms to both
sides of the same conflict.
In many situations he was flying weapons
To the government And also to the rebels.
And both sides would know,
but they had no other person
Who could provide the level
of service that he could.
And for clients without ready
cash, He was happy to barter;
Arms in exchange for
local commodities.
And often they'd say to the rebels, for example,
"look, we know you don't have the cash,
"but we don't want the cash,
we want your diamonds."
And they would arrive at the bush airstrip,
Deliver their cargo of weaponry,
The cargo of weaponry would have a certain value
And they'd fly out with a cargo of diamonds.
There is a certain amount of ego
That goes with the job description.
Viktor bout undoubtedly
would've enjoyed the notoriety.
In under five years, Viktor bout had
a devastating impact across africa.
In the congo alone, the brutal civil war
Left an estimated five million people dead.
More than in any other
conflict since world war ii.
His impact was, It was like an
earthquake across the continent.
The costs in human
lives are in the millions.
The supply of kalashnikov's, rpgs, Heavy weapons
systems was fundamental to the conflicts
Lasting as long as they did.
Viktor bout brought vast amounts
Of destruction and devastation.
Visiting the amputee camp in free town,
Interviewing people that had been brutalized,
That had been forced to commit murder,
To even kill their own parents,
Really brought home the horror of the activities
Of people like viktor bout and the deadly trade
That they plied
throughout africa.
Viktor bout ultimately was The most
successful illegal arms trader going.
Secretly, western intelligence agencies Had
been monitoring the supply of illegal weapons
And tracking the
man behind them.
Peter hain was the uk's minister for state In the
foreign and commonwealth office at the time.
Almost daily I was seeing these intelligence
reports About bout and I was saying to myself,
"what are we gonna
do about this?"
The only thing I can do is to use parliamentary
privilege As a minister and name viktor bout.
So, on November the 7th 2000, In a
speech to the house of commons,
Hain conjured up a moniker for bout
That resonated around the world.
Viktor bout is indeed the chief sanctions buster
At the present time, a real merchant of death,
A real merchant of death,
a real merchant of death.
If you can come up with a phrase that perfectly
captures Something you're trying to describe,
Then you can make an
impact The name stuck.
Peter hain's speech was sort of A
fundamental point in people like myself,
Journalists being able
to write about him.
It gave us legal cover to be able to name him,
And it gave us a great little name for him,
The merchant of death
which was very catchy.
And then, all of a sudden, People
in the US intelligence community,
Other intelligence communities started really
fixating On who is this viktor bout guy.
Former soviet military intelligence operative,
Viktor bout was now a major target
Of U.S. And british
intelligence services.
And they would soon discover that his arms
dealing Had spread into new territory.
One that would eventually
be his undoing.
By now, viktor bout's business dealings
Had made him one of the world's most
Notorious weapons suppliers.
Fueling brutal conflicts And
arming african warlords.
And nobody had
tried to stop him.
But bout was about to
acquire another client.
One that would place him firmly in the
crosshairs Of the west's intelligence agencies.
In afghanistan, The bloody conflict between the
mujahideen And the soviet union of the 1980s
Had descended into
a brutal civil war.
Viktor bout had already provided
The afghan government with arms.
And was on the brink of a new deal, For the supply
of three million rounds of ak-47 ammunition.
That was a legitimate
business to be involved in,
He was flying in weaponry to a, you could
argue, A democratic elected government,
And why should he
not be doing so?
But a little-known islamic group Had
risen to prominence in the region.
They were called the taliban, And
they wanted bout's attention.
The taliban forced viktor
bout's aircraft to land on this
Little dirt airstrip in
the middle of nowhere,
Took the crew hostage and took three million
rounds Of ammunition for themselves.
Bout flew to afghanistan in person, To
convince the taliban to release his crew.
He was granted a rare audience
With taliban leader, mullah omar.
The story goes omar had a
price for freeing bout's crew.
He wanted weapons for his war
against the afghan government.
Bout obviously realized,
And perhaps cut a deal,
That there was money to be made from running
weaponry To both sides of the equation.
It was the start
of a lucrative partnership.
In the first few months of 1995,
The taliban took control of much
Of the southern and western regions of afghanistan,
Likely using weapons supplied by bout.
At the time, it went
almost unnoticed.
But in 2005, the U.S. Treasury
would reveal that bout
Had made around $50 million
from his deals with the taliban.
Radical islam is not really
on Anybody's radar screen.
It was viewed I think generally
As just massive chaos out there.
Then, everything changed.
After 9/11 of course the
U.S. Government recognized
This unbelievable convergence
of crime and terror.
Our war or
terror begins with al qaeda.
U.S. President george w. Bush, Named osama bin laden,
leader of al qaeda, Public enemy number one.
On September the 20th 2001, The U.S.
Launched its war on terror.
Every nation, in every region,
Now has a decision to make.
Either you are with us, or
you are with the terrorists.
Within a month
of the terrorist attacks
On the twin towers, the united
states invaded afghanistan.
And it wasn't just the
taliban the U.S. Was hunting.
They also vowed to bring those responsible For
arming radical islamic groups to justice.
That kind of put bout in the spotlight, Because
the U.S. Government was so focused on al qaeda
And the taliban and actually going
after These people in afghanistan,
And it was pretty apparent
that viktor bout played a role.
On February the 18th 2002, A red
notice was issued for bout;
A global arrest warrant, For weapons
trafficking and money laundering.
I think that when interpol red notice
comes out, Then it's like uh oh,
I could actually you
know, get arrested.
But by now, viktor bout
Had retreated to russia.
Former intelligence officer,
vladimir putin was president.
And putin prided himself on his loyalty
To former intelligence comrades.
He offered bout safe haven.
The russian state was saying That they
didn't know where viktor bout was,
So that showed the level of complicity the russians
Had decided to take or the level of defense
They had decided
to put over him.
From the safety of moscow, Bout
surprised everyone by embarking
On a pr offensive
to clear his name.
And he took the pragmatic decision, That
he had nothing to lose by going public
And trying to win the
public relations battle.
He went out to clear his name, and to try
to say, Look, I'm just a supplier of goods
To people who have a need,
that was his argument.
But in may
2004, came a tipping point.
In the initial chaos following
the U.S. Led coalition's
Invasion of iraq to overthrow saddam hussein,
The pentagon used whatever freight companies
Were on the ground, to deliver military
supplies To their frontline troops.
One of those companies could
be traced back to viktor bout.
Bout seemed to have pulled off the ultimate
dodge, To move from hunted international
Arms dealer to armaments Delivery man
for the U.S. Department of defense.
The world's most wanted arms dealer,
Who was being hunted by interpol,
Flying in supplies to some
of the most top secret
And secure air bases we had
in any war zone of anywhere.
Later, investigators would reveal that bout Had
made an estimated $60 million from the pentagon,
On top of the 50 million he'd
made from arming the taliban.
The U.S. Government's embarrassment
Made them all the more
Determined to bring the
merchant of death to justice.
And in the summer of 2007, They turned
to the drug enforcement agency for help.
Derek maltz was director of the dea's
Special operations division at the time.
We had a international
bilateral investigative team
At the special operations division that enabled
us To go after the biggest and baddest threats
To bring them into america
to face the rule of law.
And we were asked by the white
house, To go after viktor bout.
We obviously took
it as a challenge.
They needed a means to lure viktor bout
Out of moscow and away from russia,
Away from where he was safe, To somewhere
that he could be hunted down and arrested.
The dea knew only
one thing would tempt bout
To leave the safety of
moscow; a lucrative arms deal.
So they devised a top secret undercover
sting, Code-named operation relentless.
The sting idea put together by the dea, Was that
the team should pose as if they were guerrillas,
Fighters for the farc, terrorist
organization in columbia.
And the reason they chose the farc, Was
because it was known, at the time,
That the farc were actually seeking to buy
Any number of surface - To-air missiles.
The farc was a guerrilla army using money From
drug trafficking, kidnapping and extortion
To fund their war on the
colombian government.
Under U.S. Law, the unauthorized
sale of surface-to-air
Missiles carried an
automatic 25 year jail term.
The aim of operation relentless was to
record bout Offering to supply them.
To run the operation against bout, Derek maltz
chose one of the dea's leading case agents,
An ex-marine with two decades Of
undercover experience, wim brown.
He was a very articulate
and smart individual.
Very calculating, and you
could see why he was very good
At what he did, 'cause
he's a people's person.
Brown realized he would only get close to bout
Through a complex chain of sources and informants.
We did our research,
we looked through our
Dea intelligence systems to see if there was
any reference To viktor bout, and there was.
And we noted that the case
agent there had an individual
That had provided information
specifically about viktor.
Brown contacted this individual, A confidential
source, who passed on the name of a man
Who became the first
crucial link in the chain.
A man named mike snow, who's
image cannot be revealed.
Mike snow was a bush pilot back in the
day, He was a former sas guy I believe
With the british military, Very sharp witted,
told it like it is And told it like it was.
Crucially the dea learned that mike snow Met
viktor bout in south africa in the '90s,
And the two had remained
in contact ever since.
Mike snow spoke to viktor bout in
a very blunt And unafraid tone.
And bout being a russian, and being from the
background He's from, rather respected that.
So, they kind of had a mutual
respect for each other.
Realizing the importance of recruiting
snow As an informant, in September 2007,
Wim brown approached him,
in a neutral location.
We said "mike, you know, if you're not
interested "in helping we totally understand,"
And then the next morning we met again and mike
said "I already made a phone call and boris,"
Which was the nickname for viktor,
"was still involved in the game."
So, he showed a complete
interest in doing this.
He'd seen what weapons have
done throughout africa.
He knew that viktor had moved
weapons in and out of africa
And I think he felt a need
and responsibility to help.
But this was only the beginning.
They still faced their most
difficult challenge yet.
How to lure viktor bout away From
the protection of the kremlin.
By now, dea investigators were one month Into an
elaborate sting operation To catch notorious arms
Dealer and former russian military
Intelligence operative, viktor bout.
Before they could set the op in motion, They had
to get close to someone in bout's inner circle.
The dea's informant,
ex-sas pilot, mike snow,
Put forward the name of someone
who was very close to bout.
If there was one person in the world, Kind of
outside of russia and moscow, that bout trusted,
Who wasn't a russian,
it was andrew smulian.
A british citizen raised in south africa, Andrew
smulian helped to run bout's vast illegal arms
Business in africa in the 1990s.
Bout regarded smulian as a
mentor, Swahili for grandfather.
When viktor bout was running his airlines Out
of south africa flying everything and anything
All over africa to all different conflict zones,
Andrew smulian was his second in command,
Running the business.
But smulian was now broke, Which
made him desperate and vulnerable.
So in November 2007, snow made contact with
smulian, Telling him there was a deal to be had.
Smulian took the bait and agreed to meet
snow And his associates, face to face.
Now the dea had to move fast.
They realized they would
have To put together a team,
With the credentials to make
bout believe that they were
Working in that dark shadowy
world in which he operated.
You know, you use a
thief to catch a thief.
The dea, very pragmatically, Had
taken any number of individuals
Who had been former drugs dealers, Or
arms dealers and cut deals with them.
You may call them
spies or whatever.
We use them to go in and
infiltrate into organizations.
They could do things
that agents can't do.
We can put 'em in to
high risk situations.
It's their choice.
Brown pinpointed
the perfect undercover
Operative to play the role of
a weapons buyer for the farc.
A man the dea codenamed carlos.
Carlos became known as the king of sting,
The go-to guy if you wanted someone to walk
Into the fire posing as an arms dealer,
Or drugs dealer, or a terrorist,
And convince the bad guy that
he was actually for real.
Carlos had served
in guatemalan military
Intelligence before becoming
embroiled in drug trafficking.
But he decided to switch sides.
He went to dea in guatemala and just said,
"listen, this is what I've been involved in
"and I wanna get out of it."
We created a relationship over the years,
And phenomenal hard worker who really
Did it for the right reasons.
In January 2008, carlos was sent by the dea To
meet with andrew smulian for the first time,
At a restaurant on the island of
curacao, Off the venezuelan coast.
It was to introduce carlos To
andrew smulian to sell this,
To say, "look it, these
guys are for real."
Carlos agreed to be interviewed For this
documentary, but his identity remains protected,
So you will hear his voice,
but not see his face.
Carlos' mission was to persuade andrew
smulian To arrange a face to face meeting
With viktor bout himself,
outside of russia.
Andrew got on the phone immediately To viktor
bout, that he had something very important
To tell him and that
this was a great deal.
For 11 days, carlos and the dea
Heard nothing back from bout.
Then, smulian made contact.
He confirmed that bout would agree To
a face to face meeting with carlos.
The two sides arranged to meet in
romania, A former soviet bloc state,
Where the dea believed
bout would feel safe.
What he didn't know was that romania
Was the perfect place for the dea
To conduct an undercover sting.
We thought that we can get viktor bout To come
into romania that would solve all our problems.
Their extradition process
was very efficient and short.
And if we were able to
arrest viktor in romania,
We knew that the process was
a maximum of roughly 45 days.
The operation relentless team Flew to
bucharest, set up a surveillance station,
And waited for
viktor bout's arrival
But almost immediately,
a problem emerged.
Viktor said there's a
problem for me to go to romania.
Russian citizens
need a visa to enter romania
And bout had an interpol
arrest warrant to his name.
Days were going past where viktor was
trying To get his visa to come in.
Viktor was on the phone with andrew
discussing His problems about getting a visa,
And for us that was our tipping point to say,
It's possible that this case is going down.
Carlos knew at this point, A genuine
illegal arms buyer would play hard ball.
So he pretended to run out of
patience, and pulled the plug.
So, we had to regroup and say,
"okay we're pulling outta romania,
"we're gonna pull
outta this deal."
Now, they'd have to sit and wait To see
if bout would try to resurrect the deal.
Just six days later, Bout sent an email
directly to carlos's undercover account.
When we got the email, to
me it was like a home run,
It was like this is insane that viktor bout
actually Sent an email back to the source.
The agents were like, "I can't
believe that this guy actually used
"his real name to open
up a g-mail account."
I think he believed
that he was untouchable.
Soon after, viktor bout called
carlos To set up another meeting,
In a location that didn't
require a visa; bangkok.
This is a recording of that conversation,
In spanish, taped by carlos.
The meeting was to be in a bangkok
hotel, In just a few days time.
The dea went over the thailand,
And my agents went over there,
They formed an unbelievable powerful team
With the guys on the ground and made sure
That the thai police
had all the information.
Bout, it seemed, Was looking
forward to leaving moscow.
He had been sanctioned and he had been
sitting In mother russia for a long time
And he wanted to get
out and play I think.
Shortly after 10:00 a.M. On March the 6th, The
world's most notorious arms dealer touched down
At bangkok
international airport.
He was being watched from
the moment he landed.
They had to do very
covert type of surveillance.
They had somebody in a toll booth, They
had another guy on the side of the road
Making like his car
was like broken down.
We were so close, we didn't
want viktor bout to get away.
Bout headed to the hotel where carlos
And his dea team were waiting.
The dea had stationed personnel Throughout
the hotel, and converted a room
On the 20th floor
into a command center.
The thai police placed
an armed unit on standby.
We had carlos in place, I said okay
it's game time, Let's make it happen.
At just after 11:30, Viktor bout
walked into the hotel lobby.
He believed he was about to shake
hands On a massive arms deal.
This was it.
It was make or break time for one of the
biggest Stings in the dea's history.
To build a watertight case against
Notorious arms dealer viktor bout,
Dea undercover operative
carlos, had a clear objective.
To record, via the wire he was wearing, Evidence
which could be placed before a us court.
He was very proud in the hotel room to mention
how The U.S. Is an enemy of his as well,
So he was very happy to know that these weapons
Were gonna take out helicopters of U.S. Pilots.
Bout was recorded offering to supply
Carlos with a staggering array of weapons.
We're talking about 5,000 ak-47s, We're talking
about russian like gun and rifle parts,
We're talking about unmanned aircraft,
We're talking about manpads,
We're talking about three
million rounds of ammunition.
This was a big deal.
$20 million, 15, $20 million.
But carlos needed bout To
offer something specific.
One of the list of armaments strictly prohibited
From international trading or exchange.
The sale of surface-to-air missiles Is a 25
year minimum Mandatory sentence all in its own.
So, it was important for viktor to say
I'm providing surface - To-air missiles.
At the meeting, bout claimed he
could Supply around 700 missiles,
At a cost in excess
of $120,000, each.
15 to $20 million to start off.
Bout even boasted to carlos Of his
close links to the russian government.
He talked about getting ministers
To sign off on paperwork.
What does a minister have to
do with signing paperwork?
Recorded through his wire, Carlos now
had all the evidence the dea needed.
It was time to take bout down.
But when carlos gave the pre-agreed signal To
the listening agents to move in, a phone call,
There was immediately a problem.
We knew that they went up to reserve
conference room On the 27th floor.
We just had no idea
what room it was.
So it was a moment of
like, where are these guys?
Do we have the right floor,
are we in the right area?
Carlos played for time.
Everybody was concerned.
Did we lose this, had
they changed their mind,
Are we up too late, are we
there too late or whatever?
That's it, let's go.
Hands up, hands up!
So convinced was bout that the weapons deal Was
genuine, He hadn't even bothered to arm himself.
Bout was taken into
custody by the thai police.
After almost two decades of
global weapons trafficking,
The man known as the merchant
of death came face to face
With the dea team dedicated
to bringing him to justice.
The agents and myself said okay, Viktor
just so you're aware the individuals
That you've been meeting with, That andrew's
been meeting with over the last three months
Are all sources
that work for dea.
All of it's been recorded.
And viktor looked matter of fact and he
said, "I guess you hold all the cards."
And it was a moment of okay,
viktor knew that he was done.
Now the dea
had one final challenge.
Getting bout back to the
united states to face charges.
And that's when viktor bout's powerful
friends In the kremlin stepped in.
And the one-time intelligence agent
Became a pawn in a bigger battle.
It was like a power struggle Going on between
the thais, The russians, the united states.
And, of course, it
became very political.
It was outrageous that they
were Blocking his extradition
When it was absolutely clear cut that this guy
Was a murderous applier and trader in blood.
I guess their biggest fear is viktor
bout Potentially cooperating in america.
What could this guy disclose
to save his own butt?
Sources told the dea of bout's
Clandestine meetings in the prison,
With undisclosed
russian officials.
This was clearly not the consulate visit, This
was much higher and this was at I believe
At high levels within
the russian government.
And I think they were doing
everything in their mind,
To protect him but also
to protect themselves.
For more than two years, Russian and american
authorities fought over bout's fate.
All the while, viktor
bout revealed nothing.
We tried to get viktor
to cooperate at the time.
It was more entrenched in him not to
cooperate, Especially with the united states
Because of the cold war
for all those years.
Finally, in 2010, the thai authorities
Agreed to bout's extradition to the u. S..
On November the 15th, A team of
dea agents arrived in bangkok.
The following day, so concerned there could
Be interference from russian interests,
The dea gave him bulletproof clothing
To wear on his way to the airport.
We got viktor
successfully onto the plane.
And I remember viktor sitting
in there in the corner,
And he had earphones on,
and listening to music.
You got the guy out of thailand, You
fought through this extradition process,
You got him on the plane, now he's on the turf
Of the united states, that was a great feeling.
In court in new york, Bout faced four terrorism
offenses, Including conspiring to kill americans
And conspiring to sell
surface-to-air missiles.
His old friend and business
associate andrew smulian
Testified against him, in
exchange for a lighter sentence,
And the hope of a place on a
witness protection program.
Throughout, bout
remained silent.
He didn't say a word in his defense at
trial, He didn't call a single witness.
And you have to
ask yourself, why?
That would have risked
revealing some of the secrets
Of the russian state, which
viktor bout and his compatriots
Knew that they were not
at liberty to reveal.
Because if you do that, if you do step out
of line, As far as moscow's concerned,
You have no route
back to russia ever.
On April the 5th 2012, Viktor bout
was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Guilty of the illegal supply of arms
To enemies of the united states.
It was the final act in one
of the most successful sting
Operations in recent american
intelligence history.
The dea and our counterparts around the
world Were successful in taking him off
The playing field and
putting him in a can.
I had seen some of the destruction that was
involved With the weapons that he provided.
So, for me it was a great satisfaction To
know that a guy like that was behind bars.
This was a man, the merchant of death,
Who needed to be put behind bars
And needed to be made an
example of for others.
Today, viktor bout resides In the united
states penitentiary In marion, illinois.
He is not eligible for
release until January 2030,
And is yet to reveal anything to the american
authorities About his kremlin backers.
Like a classic russian intelligence agent, Like a
classic spy, viktor bout went to his jail cell
Defiantly and in silence.
The russian foreign ministry vowed it will make
All necessary efforts to return viktor bout
To the motherland, at the
first available opportunity.