Arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as ‘the merchant of death’ and recently handed over to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange with the United States, has joined the ultra-nationalist Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), its leader has announced.
«Viktor Bout has become a member of the LDPR,» said the formation’s leader, Leonid Slutski, who noted that the party had during the day handed him his card during an event in Moscow.
«We are the party of patriots. I am sure that Viktor Bout, a brave and strong-willed person, will take a valuable position. Welcome to our ranks,» he has noted through a message on his Telegram account.
The LDPR, which holds 21 of the 450 seats in the Russian parliament, is a party with ultranationalist and imperialist overtones that emerged in 1989 as the Liberal-Democratic Party of the Soviet Union. The party was headed between 1992 and 2022 by Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who died in April.
The United States and Russia confirmed Thursday the exchange of prisoners whereby U.S. professional basketball player Brittney Griner, imprisoned in Russia on drug trafficking charges, and Bout, until now in a U.S. prison for arms trafficking, returned to their respective countries.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday signed the executive order confirming Bout’s pardon, although he is barred from re-entering the country. Washington has commuted the arms dealer’s 25-year prison sentence – arrested in Thailand in 2008 – to a shorter one allowing his release.
