Putin's 'Merchant of Death,' who was exchanged for Brittney Griner, reportedly selling weapons to Iran-backed Houthis



Viktor Bout — the infamous Russian arms dealer released in an eyebrow-raising prisoner exchange for Brittney Griner — is now selling arms to the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen, according to a new report.

In December 2022, the Biden administration made a deal with Russia to exchange Bout for Griner.

Powerful weapons such as Kornet anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons could also be part of the alleged arms deal.

Griner is a basketball player in the WNBA.

In February 2022, Griner was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport outside Moscow, Russia. Griner was accused of possessing cannabis, which is illegal in Russia. She admitted to the crime but claimed it was an "honest mistake." In August 2022, Griner was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison.

Before her arrest in Russia, Griner made headlines for proclaiming that the national anthem shouldn't be played before sports games. She purposely stayed in the locker room when "The Star-Spangled Banner" was played before Phoenix Mercury games in 2020.

As Blaze News previously reported, Griner sang a different tune after being released and said in 2023: "Hearing the national anthem, it definitely hit different."

Bout – who is known as the "Merchant of Death" – is one of the most notorious arms dealers in the world. Bout has been an international weapons trafficker since the 1990s and has been linked to arms being dealt to Afghanistan, Colombia, Libya, and multiple conflicts in Africa.

In 2008, a U.S. sting operation led to Bout being arrested in Thailand after he allegedly offered to supply anti-aircraft missiles to Colombian guerrillas to shoot down American aircraft. In 2011, the Merchant of Death was convicted of conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, conspiring to kill U.S. officers and employees, conspiring to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, and conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. At the time of his release, Bout had served 12 years of his 25-year sentence.

In the 2005 movie “Lord of War,” Nicolas Cage's character is loosely based on Bout.

Since the time of the controversial prison swap, Bout joined the pro-Kremlin, far-right Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. In 2023, Bout won a seat in a local assembly.

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bout is back in the arms-dealing business.

According to the report, Bout is working on a deal to send small arms to Houthi militants in Yemen.

Citing a European security official and other people familiar with the matter, the WSJ reported that Houthi emissaries went to Moscow in August to negotiate the sale of $10 million worth of automatic weapons, where "they encountered a familiar face: the mustachioed Bout."

The first two deliveries would reportedly comprise mostly of an upgraded version of the AK-47 assault rifle and could start as early as this month. The shipment would allegedly be transported to the western Yemeni port of Hodeidah under the cover of food supplies. However, more powerful weapons such as Kornet anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft weapons could also be part of the alleged arms deal.

Bout called the claim an “unsubstantiated accusation.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said of the WSJ article, "We are inclined to categorize it as fake news or an information attack on our elected representatives."

Steve Zissou, a New York attorney who represented Bout in the U.S., compared the rumored weapons deal to America's shipments of weapons to enemies of Russia.

"Viktor Bout has not been in the transportation business for over twenty years," Zissou told the Wall Street Journal. "But if the Russian government authorized him to facilitate the transfer of arms to one of America’s adversaries, it would be no different than the U.S. government sending arms and weapons of mass destruction to one of Russia’s adversaries as it has sent to Ukraine."

The Houthi slogan is: “God Is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.”

President Donald Trump’s administration designated the Houthis as global terrorists and a foreign terrorist organization in one of his last acts as president in January 2021. However, President Joe Biden reversed the decision a month later. The Biden administration changed course in January when Biden's State Department classified the Houthis as a "specially designated global terrorist group."

The U.S. Department of Defense declared in June, "The continued reckless behavior by Iran-backed Houthis threatens regional stability and endangers the lives of mariners across the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden."

The Yemen-based Houthis struck two cargo ships that required the vessel's crew to have to be rescued in June.

Since the Israel-Hamas War began last October, Houthis have targeted more than 80 merchant vessels with missiles and drones.

On Friday, the U.S. military struck more than a dozen Houthi targets in Yemen, according to U.S. officials.

Houthi rebels launched two drones and fired more than a half dozen ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles at three American ships traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, but all were intercepted by Navy destroyers, the Associated Press reported.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck analyzed a video clip from Bout's first interview as a free man in decades.

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BEWARE of Russia's Brittney Griner propaganda — this 'DANGEROUS' man is behind it



A dangerous trend has emerged since President Joe Biden traded Brittney Griner for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. The Russian media and Bout are making claims that — on the surface — are resonating with American conservatives: The West is destroying its own values and is now willing to leave a former Marine behind to satisfy the woke mob. But beware, this is dangerous propaganda because its "solution" is a lie, explained Glenn Beck on the radio program this week.

Glenn shared a few concerning video clips, one from Bout's first interview as a free man in decades. Bout ridiculed American society and claimed most of the Western world is on a dangerous path toward destruction. But Bout wasn’t the only one mocking the United States. Russian state media reporters are ridiculing the fact that Biden swapped Bout for Brittney Griner rather than Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who remains stuck behind bars.

\u201cWowwww Russian media BRUTALLY mock the U.S. for trading Brittany Griner for Viktor Bout. And really, are they wrong?\n\n\u201d
— Liz Wheeler (@Liz Wheeler) 1670605377

"But this isn't conservatism. This is Traditionalism, a philosophy pushed by Aleksandr Dugin, a man who literally wants armageddon. And it's about as truthful as the devil," Glenn warned.

Watch the video clip below to hear Glenn dissect the Russian state media's propaganda and explain the dangerous lie that’s behind it all. Can't watch? Download the podcast here.



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Top Senate Democrat blasts 'deeply disturbing' prisoner swap that released prolific arms dealer



A top Democratic senator and members of the Biden administration are speaking out about President Joe Biden's controversial decision to swap Viktor "Merchant of Death" Bout for Brittney Griner.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called Biden's decision to give up Bout "deeply disturbing."

"The Russians and other regimes that take American citizens hostage cannot pretend that there is equivalence between the Brittney Griners of the world and people like Viktor Bout, the so-called ‘Merchant of Death,'" he said in a statement. "Nothing could be further from the truth, and we cannot ignore that releasing Bout back into the world is a deeply disturbing decision."

"This should be a moment of deep reflection for the United States government to recognize we have a serious problem with hostage-taking of Americans," he also said.

What is the backstory?

Senior Biden administration officials who spoke with Politico disclosed that Russia refused the U.S. proposal to release both Griner and Paul Whelan in exchange for Bout.

The only way Russia would release both Americans is if the U.S. government released Bout and secured the release of Vadim Krasikov, a former KGB colonel and convicted murderer, a proposal that had been previously reported.

Politico explained:

The two-for-one push by Washington made sense since some U.S. officials questioned the wisdom of giving up a man who enabled the use of child soldiers, torture, amputations and aided the Taliban in Afghanistan for a basketball player, no matter how just her cause. Bringing home Griner and Whelan for Bout was a fairer swap, U.S. officials assessed.

"Due to the nature of the sham espionage charges Russia levied against Paul, the Russians have continued to treat his situation differently from Brittney’s and rejected each and every one of our proposals for his release," an administration official told Politico.

"It was a choice between bringing home one particular American, Brittney Griner, or bringing home none," the official said. "He made the very painful decision to provide the clemency necessary to get this done and, indeed, to get it done."

American officials, meanwhile, insist they will continue negotiating for Whelan's release.

It's not clear, however, what leverage the U.S. now holds to secure Whelan's freedom without Bout, whom American officials fear will return to his old way of life.