Viktor Bout, the former Russian military officer convicted of illegal arms trafficking in U.S. courts in 2012, and who was serving a 25-year prison sente
Variously dubbed “the merchant of death” and “the sanctions buster” for his ability to get around arms embargoes, Bout, 55, was one of the world's most wanted men prior to his 2008 arrest on multiple charges related to arms trafficking.
Even so, Bout, who first appeared on the CIA's radar amid reports of a shadowy Russian citizen trading arms in Africa, was by the turn of the millennium one of the most wanted men in the world. But Bout, whose clients included rebel groups and militias from Congo to Angola and Liberia, had little in the way of firm ideology, tending to place business above politics.
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