Scott-Clark, Cathy Russia's Man of War

The Extraordinary Viktor Bout

According to MI6, the US National Security Council and the CIA, Viktor Bout was a warlord among warlords a terrorist broker and the world's most prolific arms dealer. They pursued him everywhere because he smuggled weapons from North Korea and the former Soviet Union to the bloodiest conflict zones in the world, from Liberia to Afghanistan. The secret services called him a secret KGB agent, the White House called him the most dangerous man in the world. However, Bout vehemently denied this and described himself as a businessman. Washington hunted Bout for more than a decade until he was finally captured and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Then, in December 2022, the story took an unusual turn: President Biden pardoned Bout and sent him back to Moscow in a prisoner exchange to rescue basketball superstar Brittney Griner, who was imprisoned in Russia for drug possession. Soon after, Bout befriended death-row Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, and the Russian governors Putin had installed in occupied Ukraine. Did America's extraordinary decision to exchange Bout undermine Western interests? Did Putin let him go back to his old business? Through candid interviews with US investigators and Viktor Bout himself, this book reveals the true story of the merchant of death.