By Bond Robertson 
He was one of the largest arms dealers in the world. Now the United States will extradite the notorious Victor but in exchange for two American prisoners of war in Russia. This is the story of The Merchant of Death.
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The United States offered Russia a deal aimed at repatriating Americans Britney Grenier and Paul Whelan. This was stated by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken at a press conference on Wednesday.
Griner, the NBA star, was arrested in February of this year with cannabis oil in his luggage. Since then she is held in Russia. In 2020, Whelan was sentenced to 16 years in prison for espionage.
Unidentified sources say that the US authorities are ready to extradite Victor, but in exchange for the Americans on Monday, according to US media. New York Times CNN. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken confirmed that the United States had made an “important offer” to Russia.
But it is considered one of the largest arms dealers in the world. His name appeared in earnest in 1999, when he was associated with arms shipments to conflict zones in West and Central Africa.
In 2012, he was convicted but convicted of aiding the Colombian guerrilla group FARC, which was on the US terror list, with weapons. He is serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States.
Since the early 2000s, he has been nicknamed “The Merchant of Death”. But who is he really?
puzzle but
According to the book “The Merchant of Death”, published in 2007, Victor is married but has at least one daughter. His brother Serge is said to have worked for him. Furthermore, there is little personal information that can be confirmed.
According to the book, she was born but to Russian parents in Dushanbe (in the Soviet Union), which is today the capital of Tajikistan. In a radio interview from 2002, he claimed that he was born in Ashgabat in Turkmenistan. The 2001 South African report referred to him as Ukrainian.
His date of birth is disputed, but it is likely that he was born on January 13, 1967, according to New York times.
As if the story wasn’t puzzling enough, the 55-year-old has several passports with different identities, including Vadim S. And perhaps a favorite among Americans, Victor Bate.
So its average after the cold war
But he himself said that he graduated from the prestigious Soviet Military Institute of Foreign Languages in the 80s. Around the same time, he must have worked in the Air Force.
He speaks English, French, Portuguese, Uzbek and many African languages. According to representatives of the United Nations, he worked as a translator for diplomats in Angola in the late 1980s.
On the other hand, British and South African intelligence reported that But was stationed in Rome as an agent of the KGB, Russia’s security police, from 1985 to 1989. But he himself denies that he was an agent.
After the Cold War, he took advantage of the chaos in the old Soviet countries and bought several destroyed cargo planes. According to the report, he repaired it and used it to transport military weapons to conflict areas around the world CNN.
Ring fox in the arms trade
It was former British Foreign Secretary Peter Heine who was the first to call Victor a “merchant of death,” according to the report. BBC.
It is a leading death dealer and the most important air route and arms supply channel. Hein said in 2003, from Eastern Europe, especially Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine to Liberia and Angola.
– The United Nations revealed, but as the center of a spider web of shady arms dealers, diamond brokers and other operators that sustain wars, he continued.
In 2005, the Hollywood movie “Lord of War” appeared with Nicolas Cage in the title role. Cage’s character is supposed to be based in part on But.
Two years later, in 2007, the book “The Merchant of Death” was published. Authors Douglas Farah and Stephen Brown dealt with the initial story of the arms dealer. In 2014, the documentary “The Notorious Mr. Pot” was released.
Prison in the United States
The complex identity made it difficult to keep track of Victor But and his works.
But in 2008, he was arrested in Thailand during a US operation, in which the Americans pretended to be weapons purchasers from the Colombian guerrilla FARC.
Two years later he was extradited to the United States, and in 2012 the sentence was overturned. But he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for arms smuggling and supporting a terrorist organization.
Victor But attorney Preet Bharara has been the number one enemy of the international arms trade for many years and has supplied arms to some of the world’s fiercest conflicts, attorney Preet Bharara said during the trial in New York in 2012.
When the verdict was handed down, the Russian authorities believed it was politically motivated. But himself maintained his innocence throughout.