The Biden administration is considering a prisoner swap that would free Brittney Griner from detention in Russia in exchange for notorious illegal arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to sources and Russian media.
n an effort to free Brittney Griner, the pro basketball star detained in Russia, the Biden administration has offered to swap her for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout and send him back to Russia,has learned. Negotiations are in the early stages, according to a non-government source in a position to know.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department declined to comment. Roger Carstens, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, who leads the interagency team that’s working for Griner’s release, had no comment. The same was true for Bout’s New York attorney, Steve Zissou. Lindsay Kagawa Colas, Griner’s California agent, did not respond to requests for comment.
Bout was a translator in the Soviet army before starting an air-freight company that transported tens of millions of arms he supplied during his heyday in the 1990s and early 2000s to sanctioned militias and rebels in conflicts throughout Africa and Asia. Soft-spoken, erudite, fluent in seven languages with an IQ of 170, Bout seemed more like a university professor than the world’s most notorious illegal arms trafficker. His 2008 arrest in Bangkok was part of a sting operation by the U.S.
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