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MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. Russian businessman and member of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party Viktor Bout has sent a wire to former US President Donald Trump from Moscow’s Central Telegraph, complete with instructions on how to survive in a US prison and suggesting that he request political asylum in Russia. "Today, I sent a telegram to former US President Donald Trump. First of all, I believe that his life is in danger. The trial that has begun in New York will not end with Donald Trump just getting convicted and losing his chance at the presidency," Bout said.

On episode 20 of the show we are joined by Viktor Bout, a man whose life story is quite worthy of a film adaptation. A polyglot, entrepreneur, graduate of the Soviet Military Institute of Foreign Languages. In the West Viktor is portrayed as the “lord of war” and the “merchant of death”. A Russian businessman, a case against whom was fabricated by the American intelligence services on the basis of a provocation they carried out against him in Thailand in 2008. After extradition to the United States, Bout was sentenced to 25 years in a maximum security prison. He was...

As we’ve noted here, when it comes to The Art of the Deal, Biden doesn’t have it, which was painfully exposed when he pulled the trigger on a bad deal to get back WNBA star Brittney Griner who has been detained in Russia for months. In February, Griner was jailed on drug charges, with vape charges containing cannabis oil on her person. It was for medicinal purposes, but it’s illegal in Russia. A months-long legal circus carried allegations that the Biden White House either didn’t know or care that an American was being detained overseas. It also didn’t help that...

American officials will hold talks “this week” with Russian leaders about negotiations to release former Marine Paul Whelan, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday. “With respect to the question of whether we’ve had engagement with the Russian Federation on the Whelan case, we will have an engagement with them this week,” Sullivan told reporters. Sullivan was not asked about and did not address the case of American Marc Fogel — who like Whelan was left behind last week when President Biden signed off on a prisoner swap in which the US released convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout...

Sony Hostin, a co-host of ABC’s The View, slammed former secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former President Trump and other Republicans who have critiqued President Biden’s recent prisoner swap deal with Russia. Co-hosts Whoopi Goldberg and Alyssah Farah Griffin noted that the Trump administration negotiated the release of 5,000 Taliban members in Afghan prisoners in 2020. “I think it’s just the sheer hypocrisy of it because I have, and I’ve said it here, always felt, umm, conflicted about negotiating with terrorists because I do think it will encourage a terrorist to grab other Americans,” Hostin said on the daytime talk...

Those who opposed the release of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, notoriously dubbed “the Merchant of Death,” in exchange for former WNBA star Brittney Griner are largely driven by racism and homophobia, according to Democrat consultant and political commentator James Carville. Carville also claimed opposition to the swap “exposed a big big fault in American culture,” and said those opposed are likely “pro-Putin.” Speaking on CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta on Saturday, Carville complained that racism and homophobia are significant drivers of opinion in America, suggesting that if Griner was a “blond Chi Omega from SMU” then the reaction would...

As more information trickles out about how President Joe Biden agreed to swap Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout for WNBA player Brittney Griner, former President Donald Trump revealed that Russia had tried to get him to release Bout in a proposed prisoner exchange that Trump rejected over his objections to freeing the "Merchant of Death." In a post on Truth Social, Trump said "I turned down a deal with Russia for a one on one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan," the former U.S. Marine who was arrested by Russian authorities in 2018 and charged with...

The controversy over the one-sided prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia, with notorious "Merchant of Death" and "Lord of War"Viktor Bout traded for a wokester celebrity basketball player caught with personal stash of CBD oil, is now dying down. The remaining question is what's next? We can safely assume that Brittney Griner will either return to professional basketball, or more likely enter the lucrative lecture circuit with book deals and television appearances. That's a very big 'who cares'? But arms trafficker Viktor Bout is another story. What is he going to do now that he is out and about...

In his first major interview since his release, Viktor Bout, whom the US has labelled as an arms dealer, spoke to RT on Saturday. Bout was returned to Russia in a high-profile prisoner swap for basketball player Brittney Griner on Thursday. During the conversation, the businessman revealed the techniques he used to stay sane while behind bars, spoke about the conflict in Ukraine and on whether he believed the US might be on the verge of an uprising. Arming the Taliban Bout served 12 years in American prisons on arms-trafficking charges that he denies. Despite evading Taliban captivity in the...

Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 @JackPosobiec BREAKING: Saudi Arabia and UAE announce they brokered Griner release in joint statement thepostmillennial.com 12:40 PM · Dec 8, 2022

TMZ (live TV, today 12.12.22, PM) showed results of a poll, if Brittney Griner swap with Viktor Bout was worth it. 71% responded, it was NOT.

The reactions to the lopsided Brittney Griner/Viktor Bout swap are still coming in.Here’s Derek Maltz, former DEA Special Operations Director, talking with Fox News, describing the effort they made to put Bout in jail, what a danger he was to the world, and that he was convicted on serious terrorism charges. He notes that even the Obama administration got how serious this was and Joe Biden was the Vice President at the time, so he had to know what a danger Bout was to the world. “Putin has just established a new tool,” Maltz said, and others will “take advantage...

Former President Trump on Sunday said he turned down a deal to release former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who’s been detained by Moscow since 2018, in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout during his time in the White House. “I turned down a deal with Russia for a one on one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan. I wouldn’t have made the deal for a hundred people in exchange for someone that has killed untold numbers of people with his arms deals,” Trump said on Truth Social.

“Joe Biden’s world-class hypocrisy is on full display, and it has taken a dangerous turn, in his trade of a notorious Russian arms dealer for Brittany Griner,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. Biden’s swap of Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout—known as the “Merchant of Death”—for Griner this week has brought expressions of outrage and astonishment. The jailed basketball gold medalist is one of two Americans who have been held by the Russians. The other is Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran who was imprisoned four years ago on espionage charges, and...

(The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.)The lopsided trade that sprung basketball player Brittney Griner didn’t include U.S. Marine Paul Whelan—because the Kremlin demanded convicted assassin Vadim Krasikov be freed from a German prison in exchange, according to the New York Times and multiple other outlets. The murderous Krasikov was once a colonel in the notorious Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the KGB.After Germany refused to take part in a three-way deal to free Krasikov, the United States instead settled on swapping Griner for “Merchant of Death”...

Bout is alleged to have fueled multiple conflicts across the globe through arms dealing, sometimes to both sides ... A senior defense official is concerned that convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, the "Merchant of Death" .. could go back to illegally trafficking weapons, thereby fueling deadly conflicts around the world. "I think there is a concern that he would return to doing the same kind of work that he's done in the past.. Bout was in the middle of serving a 25-year prison sentence in a U.S. prison for several offenses, including conspiring to kill Americans ... Bout, a...

by Becca London | RNNIf it wasn't already clear what a weak surrender - and strategically-dangerous move - was Joe Biden's sending back a jailed Russian arms dealer to the Kremlin in exchange for pothead, America-hating WNBA player Brittney Griner, a stunning video clip from Russian TV makes it that much clearer. To recap, Biden freed the imprisoned "Merchant of Death" Viktor Bout - the most notorious arms dealer in history - to Russia for Griner, but left an American Marine hero Paul Whelan in a brutal Russian jail, where he was thrown after being railroaded on a fake "espionage"...

Shortly after Brittney Griner landed in Texas early Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said more prisoner exchanges are possible between the two countries. Putin said “everything is possible” when asked about future swaps, noting that “compromises have been found” to clear the exchange of the WNBA star for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout. “We aren’t refusing to continue this work in the future,” the Russian strongman added after a summit in Kyrgyzstan. “Whether this could set stage for a dialogue with the U.S. is a separate issue,” the leader said. “We didn’t set the task to move from those talks...

Victor Bout is the poster boy for a new generation of post Cold War international arms dealers who play a critical role in areas where the weapons trade has been embargoed by the United Nations....

Former President Donald Trump shot down Russian attempts to trade former Marine Paul Whelan for “Merchant of Death” arms dealer Viktor Bout, former national security adviser John Bolton said Thursday — as Trump ripped his successor for agreeing to send Bout home in exchange for the return of WNBA star Brittney Griner. Bolton recalled in an interview with CBS that he was in the midst of his 17-month tenure at the White House when Whelan was detained on concocted espionage charges in December 2018. “The possibility of a Bout-for-Whelan trade existed back then,” said Bolton, 74, “and it wasn’t made,...