Viktor Bout: Russia’s released arms dealer joins ultranationalist party
Russia’s arms dealer Viktor Bout – nicknamed the “merchant of death” – has joined the pro-Kremlin ultranationalist LDPR celebration, following his release in a United States prisoner that is high-profile swap.
In a video published online, LDPR frontrunner Leonid Slutsky thanked Bout, 55, for subscribing to “the best party that is political today’s Russia”.
After an US that is elaborate sting Bout was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2011.
A week ago, he was exchanged for people basketball star Brittney Griner, 32.
Griner, 32, was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing cannabis oil and last month she was sent to a colony that is penal.
Griner’s agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, told ESPN that on Sunday, she picked up a basketball the very first time in nearly 10 months, starting a dunk to her light exercise.
The representative included that it failed to necessarily mean that the athlete – who happens to be in the populous city of San Antonio – would resume her sporting career at the ladies’ National Basketball Association (WNBA).
Within the LDPR video posted on Monday, Bout is seen standing on stage together with Mr Slutsky and other party that is leading.
Mr Slutsky said that Bout had spent years that are”long in prison, but “today he is with us”.
“We will return all those who are in difficulty outside our motherland,” he vowed.
Meanwhile, Bout said that for the right moment he wasn’t likely to run in any elections, Russia’s Ria Novosti news agency reports.
The LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) had been founded in the early 1990s by the Vladimir that is belated Zhirinovsky who gained notoriety for his outrageous opinions – including repeated demands for Moscow to use nuclear weapons – and his eccentric behaviour.
A contender that is serious energy during the first years in the post-Soviet Russia, the party is now seen by many as loyal to the Kremlin on key dilemmas, such as for example the full-scale intrusion of Ukraine.
It is not enough time that is first LDPR has recruited high-profile figures during the centre of big worldwide scandals.
The year before – also joined the LDPR after fleeing London in 2007, Russian safety agent Andrei Lugovoi – wanted in britain on suspicion of poisoning former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. He could be now a known member of their state Duma – the lower chamber of Russia’s parliament.