The biography of Viktor Bout, a former Air Force officer, inspired Hollywood figures to create a film, as a result of which a formidable nickname was assigned to him - the merchant of death.
Arrest and extradition
In 2010, Viktor Bout (photo presented later in the article) was extradited to the United States from Thailand after a targeted operation by the US Drug Enforcement Agency. DEA employees posed as buyers representing the FARC, the armed forces of the Colombian revolutionaries. The group is classified as a terrorist organization by the United States.
Booth claimed that he was simply a legitimate international shipping entrepreneur, wrongly accused of trying to arm South American rebels and a victim of American political machinations.
But in New York they did not believe his story.
Who is Viktor Bout really?
In April 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being found guilty of conspiracy to murder US government officials and citizens, supplying anti-aircraft missiles and aiding a terrorist organization.
During the three-week trial, it was stated that Bout knew that the weapons would be used to kill American pilots collaborating with Colombian authorities. To this he replied that they had only one enemy.
Russian citizen Viktor But (photo provided in the article) began his business career in the field of air transport after the collapse of the USSR in 1991.
According to the 2007 book Merchant of Death, written by security experts Douglas Farah and Stephen Brown, Bout built his business using military aircraft left on airfields of the crumbling Soviet empire.
The rugged Antonovs and Ilyushins were sold with crews and were ideal for delivering goods, as they could use the rough runways of countries where hostilities were taking place.
Viktor Anatolyevich Booth: biography
Bout was born in Soviet Tajikistan, presumably on January 13, 1967, although the exact date and place of his birth are unknown. For example, South African intelligence attributes him to Ukrainian origin.
After serving in the Soviet army, he graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages. The airline owner's personal website claims that he worked as a military translator and retired from the Armed Forces with the rank of lieutenant colonel. But the biography of Viktor Bout is not so clear. According to other sources, he rose to the rank of GRU major and participated in Soviet military operations in Angola in the 1980s.
Despite international sanctions, he began supplying weapons to war-torn regions of Africa through a series of front companies.
UN charges
Victor Bout, whose biography is closely related to the former leader of Liberia, Charles Taylor, who committed war crimes, was accused by the United Nations. According to UN statements, he was a businessman, seller and transporter of minerals and weapons, who supported the Taylor regime to destabilize Sierra Leone and illegally obtain diamonds.
According to Middle Eastern media reports, he supplied weapons to the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Bout was also accused of arming both sides of the civil conflict in Angola and selling arms to warlords and governments from the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo to Sudan and Libya.
On the run
Bout himself categorically denied his connection with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. However, he admitted that he transported weapons to Afghanistan in the mid-1990s, claiming that they were used by commanders to fight against the Taliban.
He also claimed to have helped the French government transport supplies to Rwanda after the genocide and also transported UN peacekeepers.
But law enforcement pursued him throughout the 2000s.
In 2002, when authorities issued a warrant for his arrest, Victor was forced to leave his home in Belgium.
Under various aliases, Booth traveled through the United States United Arab Emirates and South Africa and appeared again in Russia in 2003.
That same year, British Foreign Secretary Peter Hain coined his famous nickname. After reading the report on Bout, he said that he was a leading merchant of death, the main intermediary in the supply of weapons from countries Eastern Europe- Moldova, Ukraine and Bulgaria - to Angola and Liberia.
The UN has described Bout as a central figure in a web of shady arms dealers, diamond brokers and other warmongers.
Tango lessons
Throughout the 2000s, the US took action against Bout, freezing his assets in 2006, but there was no law under which he could be prosecuted in the United States.
Instead, American agents waited until 2008, identified themselves as buyers from Colombian rebels, and were introduced to the death merchant through one of his former associates. Shortly after DEA officers discussed the clandestine arms transfers with him, Thai authorities arrested Bout and, after a lengthy trial, began the process of extradition to the United States.
Booth said the United States' actions against him were politically motivated, and his wife said her husband's only connection to Colombia was his tango lessons.
The Russian authorities supported the merchant of death. The Foreign Minister promised to fight for his return to Russia, calling the decision of the Thai court “unfair and political.”
At the end of the 2005 film "Lord of War", the script of which was based on the biography of Viktor Bout, the anti-hero eludes justice. But in life, a “happy ending” eluded the arms baron.
Sentence
On 11/02/11 the merchant of death was found guilty, and on 04/05/12 he was sentenced to minimum term- 25-year prison sentence - on charges of conspiracy to sell weapons to terrorist groups. Prosecutors had sought life in prison, arguing that Bout's arms trafficking fueled conflicts around the world.
In response, Russian authorities in 2013 included US citizens who were investigating the case of Viktor Bout and the drug trafficker on the list of persons prohibited from entering the Russian Federation. They included former federal prosecutor Michael Garcia, his deputies Anjan Sahni, Brendan McGuire, Christian Everdell, Jenna Dabs, Judge Jed Rakoff and investigators Michael Rosenzaft and Christopher Lavigne.
The biography of Viktor Bout is described in the book “Death Merchant: Money, Guns, Planes and the Organizer of Wars” by Douglas Far and Stephen Brown (2007). But there are no words that the merchant of death said to the New Yorker journalist: “They will try to lock me up for life. But I will return to Russia. I don’t know when. But I’m still young. Your empire will collapse, and I’ll get out of here.” .
) immigrated to the United States as a child. He watched his parents run a small restaurant and realized he was drawn to something bigger. He was always a risk-taker and one day discovered exciting opportunities in the arms trade.
First, he began supplying local criminal groups with it, and then sending the goods to hot spots. Everything changed when Interpol came out to hunt for Yuri. The hero lost his wife, lost his brother, went to jail, but upon being released, he continued to engage in a dangerous business.
You open a restaurant because people are hungry all the time and you can satisfy their need. That day I realized that my purpose lies in another plane of basic human needs.
Selling your first gun is a lot like having sex for the first time.
You have absolutely no idea what you're doing, but it's exciting.
The first rule of an arms dealer is don't get
bullet from your own product.
The second rule of a merchant is to always provide a reliable method of payment. Better forward. Perfect -
to an offshore bank account. You can say anything
about dictators and tyrants, but they always pay on time.
What about cigarette sellers? Their goods are killing more people.
At least mine have fuses.
The arms trade requires quickness: you have to be able to spin. Revolution usually happens even before
how the weapon gets into place. The biggest loss to our business comes from the world.
You can defeat many enemies and survive, but who fights?
with its nature, is doomed to defeat.
I sell to the right and left. I would like to sell to pacifists, but they are rare buyers.
There are two types of tragedies in life. The first is not getting what you want. The second is to get it.
They say that when good is idle, evil triumphs. The truth is two times shorter: evil wins.
Do you know who will inherit the Earth? Weapons sellers.
Because the rest of us are too busy killing each other. Here it is, the secret of survival: never fight. Especially with yourself.
The best combination for an arms dealer is
disgruntled soldiers and warehouses full of weapons.
You got so rich selling arms for the CIA,
that it is difficult for you to get the old ideology out of your head.
President Batista was my best client.
But I was in no hurry to meet him: he was famous
because he liked to chop off the limbs of those who were with him
didn't agree.
Of the vast Soviet arsenal of weapons, there was no more profitable model than the Kalashnikov assault rifle, aka AK-47. This is the most popular slot machine in the world. It's elegantly simple, constructed from pressed steel and plywood, and weighs just 9 pounds. It does not break, does not jam, and shoots in mud and sand. The Soviets embossed it on coins, Mozambique put it on its flag. During the war, the Kalashnikov assault rifle became the main export item for the Russians. And then there are vodka, caviar and suicidal writers.
Viktor Bout is a man whose life story is quite worthy of a film adaptation. A polyglot and entrepreneur, who is known throughout the world as the “arms baron” or “merchant of death.” The list of charges brought against Victor is blood-chilling: arms trafficking, support of terrorist organizations - all of this “pulled up” to 25 years of strict regime, which Bout will now have to spend in an American prison.
Childhood and youth
Viktor Bout was born on January 13, 1967. Bout's homeland is Dushanbe, but Victor himself periodically called Ashgabat his birthplace.
After serving in the army, Victor entered the Military Institute of Foreign Languages, choosing to study Portuguese. During his studies, Booth managed to work as a translator in Angola and Mozambique.
In 1990, after completing accelerated Chinese courses, Victor wrote a letter of resignation from the army. The young man rose to the rank of senior lieutenant.
“In civilian life” Viktor Bout began his career as a translator at an air transportation center, constantly flying on business trips to Brazil and Mozambique. However, already at that time Booth began to think about his own business.
Business
Opening your own business became possible only after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is worth noting that in the early 1990s the airline industry went into decline. Companies were going bankrupt, so it was possible to buy a plane for next to nothing. Victor Bout did just that: the man bought one plane, thus laying the foundation for his own airline.
Soon the man already owned the Transavia company, which was registered in Kazan. Also, according to media reports, Bout owned the Almaty company IRBIS. Victor earned his first capital from air transportation. The entrepreneur delivered fresh flowers to the Gulf countries, as well as frozen meat to Nigeria and the South African republics.
Since 1996, Viktor Bout began delivering Russian fighter aircraft to Malaysia. Around the same time, the first assumptions and even direct accusations against the entrepreneur began to appear in the media: the man allegedly transported not only legal cargo, but also traded weapons with countries that were under an international embargo.
These speculations were compounded by the testimony of the company's pilots, who claimed that they never saw what exactly was being transported, since the cargo was always nailed up in opaque boxes.
From 1995 to 1998, Viktor Bout lived in Belgium, but at that time an investigation into his business had already been launched. Soon the man had to move to the United Arab Emirates - the office of the Air Cess Liberia company was located there, which was also his property.
Charge and trial
Meanwhile, rumors and suspicions against Viktor Bout intensified. According to media reports, by the end of the 90s, the businessman had gained fame as an illegal arms dealer, one of the largest in Russia. According to some assumptions, among Bout's clients were the governments and illegal terrorist groups of Afghanistan and Angola, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, as well as al-Qaeda militants.
In 2002, scandalous information was published in the American media. Viktor Bout was called the organizer of a large illegal arms market. According to United States journalists, the businessman bought weapons from factories in post-Soviet countries. Then Viktor Bout allegedly sold these weapons, and also exchanged them for diamonds to those countries that were subject to the official UN embargo.
The British side, which also joined the investigation, published figures. Thus, according to one of the largest publications in the country, Viktor Bout earned $30 million only from weapons supplied to the Taliban rebels.
In 2005, a United States court decision froze the assets of 30 companies whose activities were in one way or another connected with the name of Viktor Bout. At the same time, information appeared that Bout allegedly sold not only weapons, but also serious military equipment - helicopters and tanks. All weapons, according to US information, were sent to hot spots in Asian countries and the African continent.
In 2018, photos of Viktor Bout again appeared on the pages of news publications. It became known that the man was sick, and the paramedic would only be able to arrive in two weeks (there is no full-time doctor in the prison where Victor is serving his sentence). The situation was resolved only after an official request from the Russian embassy to the US authorities. Now Booth's life is out of danger.
The media also reported that Viktor Bout might soon see his wife and daughter. This meeting will be the first in six years. The fact is that until this moment Victor’s family did not have enough money for such an expensive trip: the family’s fortune was spent on courts and lawyers. Now the financial opportunity to visit my husband and father has appeared.
The world of international arms trade often attracts the attention of filmmakers. But often the action in them unfolds according to a somewhat far-fetched plan, unrealistic. From this point of view, the new film " Weapons Baron" compares favorably with all the others - it is built on a real story. Heritage cold war- a huge volume of weapons that were supplied from the former Soviet republics to developing countries (especially African ones), bringing huge profits to its sellers.
In Ukraine alone, from 1982 to 1992, weapons worth 32 billion dollars were stolen. And not a single culprit was found or punished.
The film stars: NICOLAS CAGE (Leaving Las Vegas, Face/Off, Con Air, The Rock) and ETHAN HAWKE (Taking Lives, Training Day, Gattaca, Reality Bites) , “Dead Poets Society”), as well as BRIDGET MOYNAHAN (“I Robot,” “Coyote Ugly Bar”), JERED LETO (“Panic Room,” “Fight Club,” “Requiem for a Dream,” “American Psycho” ) and IAN HOLM (The Lord of the Rings, The Aviator, The Day After Tomorrow, The Glorious Future, Aliens).
Plot
Yuri Orlov was born in Ukraine in Soviet era and as a child emigrated to America with his parents, who provided false documents about their supposed Jewish origin.
His parents opened a kosher restaurant on Brighton Beach in New York. But one day, caught in the crossfire of rival gangs, he comes to the conclusion that he has long been tired of his miserable business, that he was created for something more.
Yuri persuaded his younger brother Vitaly to engage in the arms trade. They found their niche in the underground sector, selling weapons to regimes subject to international sanctions.
Decay Soviet Union in 1991 it came at a very opportune time for Yuri. He immediately goes to Ukraine, knowing that mountains of weapons have accumulated there, finding no use for themselves, since the enemy in the person of the West no longer exists.
Yuri recruits the general as an ally Ukrainian army. He mainly sells weapons to warring countries in Africa, skillfully circumventing embargoes. By the mid-90s, Yuri's fortune reached the level of his inventions about his own wealth and even surpassed them.
But life situation, the death of his brother, the breakdown of the family, the renunciation of his parents lead to the fact that the weapon king finds himself alone with himself. This is where the worst part begins...
Actors about their heroes
NICOLAS CAGE ABOUT YURI ORLOV
“When I first read the script, I wasn't sure I really wanted to play this character because I was afraid he was too deep into me and also because of what he actually does. But at the same time, it seems to me that he has reached a certain point and believes that what he is doing could ultimately... No, I don't want to reveal my thoughts, because you have to make up your own mind about him own opinion, and it’s much more interesting than what I could tell.”
JARED LETO ABOUT VITALY ORLOV
“I play Vitaly, Yuri’s younger brother, his criminal partner and his conscience. In our film, I play the role of an innocent dreamer, a person who strives to achieve a lot, but cannot even understand what exactly. He cannot understand how to fulfill his desires and loses faith in his own abilities.”
ANDREW NICCOL – writer, director, producer. His directorial debut was the film “Gattaca” based on his own script. The film stars Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. "Gattaca" was nominated for an Oscar for better job chief artist and the Golden Globe for best music.
Film "The Truman Show", with Jim Carrey in leading role, on which Niccol worked as a scriptwriter and producer, was nominated for three Oscars, including best scenario, and Niccol won the British Academy Film Award for Best Screenplay.
Niccol directed, wrote and produced S1MONE, starring Al Pacino, and wrote and executive produced Steven Spielberg's Terminal, starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
The film "Baron of Arms" will be released on Russian screens on February 2, 2006.
Read about the latest film premieres.
12/10/2011
Victor
Anatolyevich Bout, who appeared before an American court in New York,
lost a lot of weight compared to what he was in his heyday
power. For a long time was one of the most active arms dealers in
world. He is believed to have been born in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) in 1967.
After the collapse of the USSR, he turned into a symbol of the arms dealer - as
legal and illegal.
To such an extent that it became
prototype of arms magnate Yuri Orlov from the famous film
“The Weapon Baron” (Lord of War, 2005), whose role he played
Nicolas Cage. But not only him, in the character of the main character one can read
features of the Frenchman Jean Bernard Lasnaud, the Egyptian
Monzer al-Kassar, Lebanese Sarkis Soganalyan and Ukrainian Leonid
Minina. All of them have fallen into the hands of justice at some point. And today has come
it's Viktor Bout's turn.
At the time of the collapse of the USSR in 1991, this
The military pilot - possibly from the GRU - is only 24 years old. But even then he became
supply foreign clients with weapons and ammunition from Soviet
warehouses, which were sold by officers. In those days, thousands of vehicles
aircraft (“Antonov”, “Ilyushin”, “Yakovlev”, “Tupolev”) slowly
covered with rust at airfields. The military sells three planes to Bout
"Antonov" at a ridiculous price: 120 thousand dollars. He is only 25 years old. At first
these three planes are flying to Denmark. In 1996, Booth settled in
airport in the Belgian city of Ostend. Booth is not yet
the owner of the entire air fleet at its disposal. At first it was his
Russian customers lease planes to him.
Rebels use Bout's services
His
an air fleet of approximately 50 Soviet military aircraft flies either
under the auspices of one of the most opaque airlines he owns
either in whole, or in part, or through charter agreements. Top
iceberg - Air Cess company. All the rebels on the planet use it
services: rebels from Angola (Unita), Kenya, Sudan, Uganda,
Sierra Leone (members of Sam "Mosquito" RUF revolutionary united front
Bockarie), Colombian Farc group, democratic forces
liberation of Rwanda FDLR Straton Musoni. Members of the liberation movement
Congo MLC Jean Pierre Bemba paid Bout for his services in diamonds and rare
minerals. Booth knows Africa like the back of his hand.
During times
communism, Booth often visited Africa as an officer in the Soviet army.
It was in Angola, working as a translator for Russian observers from
UN, he's "infected." However, this is not known for certain... Years later in
May 1997, it is the plane of this kindest soul that saves
overthrown President of Zaire Mobutu Sese Seko, literally tearing him out of
the hands of the guards remaining on the take-off platform.
1990s -
a fertile time for Booth. Conflict zones in Africa are well adapted
to air transport, there is no shortage of runways, flights
can be carried out discreetly, avoiding formalities and difficulties with
passing control. So, it costs nothing to play a fake “emergency”
landing" or fly to a destination not specified in the itinerary
leaf.
Booth operates not only in Africa. He sends his fleet to
Panjshir lion Ahmad Shah Massoud. Leader of the Northern Alliance
Afghanistan pays him with emeralds - he just then became
Minister of Defense during the transitional regime. Since 1993 in the country
a new one is breaking out civil war. Bout's planes with weapons shipments
fly there from 1992 to 1996.
Bout living to the fullest
Having
heavy transport aircraft, of course, with Russian pilots, but
without certificates to fly under flags different countries, Viktor Bout is
the only businessman who agrees to land anywhere,
helping both humanitarian organizations and military or fighting against
them to the rebels. He works for both ours and yours and lives to the fullest
reel... When France launches Operation Turquoise in Rwanda in 1994,
It is he who delivers part of the troops and ammunition. After that he
delivers Hutu troops from the Congo who committed genocide. In 1999
40 armed conflicts are raging in 36 countries this year. Bout reaches
the pinnacle of one's own power. But problems are just around the corner...
IN
a very detailed Interpol report dated December 4, 2004 talks about
details of arms supplies to Angola to Unita rebels
(“National Union for the Total Independence of Angola”) by Jonas Savimbi. These
operations are also analyzed by UN staff, who make a conclusion about
“classical” organization: in the late 1990s, Bulgarian and Romanian
defense companies received orders for the supply of weapons from
financially wealthy countries, for example, Togo and Burkina Faso.
End-use certificates were questionable to say the least, and
later they turned out to be fake. But the Bulgarian weapons were delivered
during 38 flights by Buta Air Cess.
November 26, 2004
year, UN inspectors, accompanied by South African military personnel, suddenly
raided the airport in Goma (Democratic Republic of Congo). They are not
waited so they were able to seize the flight documents and technical
elements relating to Booth's 26 aircraft. One of these flying
devices, registered in Kazakhstan and painted white,
legally had the number UN-79954, strongly reminiscent
UN number. In reality, he was transporting weapons in the interests of
various Congolese military groups in exchange for valuable minerals.
Services that no other company can offer
All
these unpleasant details will not interfere with either the Pentagon or the occupation forces
forces in Iraq a few years later would close their eyes and resort to
Booth's services! At the end of 2004, one of the Irbis airlines carried out
more than 142 flights to Iraq in the interests of the American army and its
contractors. In reality Defense Logistics Agency DLA
used the services of Fedex, which in turn hired
Irbis, which flew across the Persian Gulf on the old
IL-18. Meanwhile, Viktor Bout was on the black list of the American
Treasury, but its air transport companies do not.
Why
resort to the services of such an ambiguous person? Because Booth does
something that other companies refuse. This "supply specialist"
weapons" in an interview with Le Monde dated May 19, 1994, explains that
the specifics of his work are closely related to the crew and the aircraft: “They can
to land at any point in a military conflict without the slightest emotional distress
experiences. And if any device is hit, then there is no risk that
that the bodies of dead American pilots will be dragged through the streets.”
Such
business is not for everyone, but Viktor Bout knew it well.
He provided services not only to dictators or executioners, but to those who could
pay for his services. As stated in one of the archival documents
service of the US Congress, such people “are not supporters of any
groups or ideologies. Their only motivation is profit.”
