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such a deal!

That Russian Arms Dealer We Released for Brittney Griner Is Now Selling Weapons to Terrorists

Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer known as the “Merchant of Death,” walked out of a U.S. jail almost two years ago in a trade with Moscow for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner. Now he is back in business, trying to broker the sale of small arms to Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militants. 

The 57-year-old, whose life reportedly inspired the 2005 Hollywood movie, “Lord of War,” starring Nicolas Cage, spent decades selling Soviet-made weapons in Africa, South America and the Middle East before being arrested in 2008 in a U.S. law enforcement sting operation. 

Since his release, Bout has joined a pro-Kremlin far-right party and won a seat in a local assembly in 2023, seemingly turning the page on his days as an arms broker. But when Houthi emissaries went to Moscow in August to negotiate the purchase of $10 million worth of automatic weapons, they encountered a familiar face: the mustachioed Bout, according to a European security official and other people familiar with the matter. 

UPDATE: "Any risk he poses (after release) can be managed.”

At the time of his release, the White House downplayed the threat and consequence of releasing Bout. Biden National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan argued the risk could be "managed."

"Before we make any determination about whether to send somebody back as part of a deal to get an American home, we make a determination about the national security implications of that.  We did that assessment in this case.  We believe we can manage those challenges, but we will remain constantly vigilant against any threat that Viktor Bout may pose to Americans, to the United States going forward," Sullivan told reporters during a briefing on December 12, 2022. 

So, “constantly vigilant” means they’ve known he’s back in business, and “managed” means doing nothing? That sounds about right for this administration.