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 The arm dealing
is a strange occupation to deal with. The scheme of business activity is too
complicated. On the one hand, the marketing and market laws exist and act forever,
when it is world known that the advertisement is the tool to promote the goods,
and the more people know about businessmen and services, the higher is the
potential profit. On the other hand, the arm dealing in our conditions is associated
with half-legal and at times illegal proceedings, in fact, which are pregnant
with the difficulties with the judicial authorities of individual countries
either with the international justice.
Viktor Bout retired from the Army in
1992 and changed the residence for the BelgiancityOstende.
He mainly preferred to deal business
in Africa when jointly with his elder brother Sergey,
he started with buying up old aviation equipment though well maintained for a
song which were in abundance in different African countries. The question is
that throughout the previous twenty years the Soviet Union
supplied the black continent with various equipment, including the aircraft
technique, and fittings to support the friendly political regimes.
After the collapse
of the Soviet Union, the huge amount of Russian pilots left Africa.
The African pilots were rare and the aircraft appeared to be the useless scrap
metal, indeed. Therefore, the proposal offered by Bout to purchase the scrap
metal for something valuable was too attractive. As a result, Viktor and his
brother Sergey founded one of the largest private air fleet in the world with
the aircraft ranging from 50 to 60 by various sources. Such an unprecedented
vehicle treasure and the acquaintances in the army force system facilitated the
status of Bout and he acquired the challenge to become the largest armament
dealer in the market of Africa, Middle East and Central
Asia. And he did not fail to miss this opportunity – the most
weapon supplied by Bout to his customers arrived from the military storehouses
of the former Soviet republics. When the republics acquired the independence,
the first years were uncontrollable, and the military authority found the way
to provide their families with something to survive. Consequently, by the sources
of the intelligent services of the USA, Angola, Congo,
Liberia, Sierra Leone, as well as in Afghanistan and the Philippines from the early 90s till
the recent times. Meanwhile, his business was legally protected when he smartly
justified the huge amount of aircraft by various business transactions. Thus,
in the early 90s he arranged the flower supply to the countries of the Persian
Gulf from the Southern Africa. Yet, by the latest
data it is known that fresh gladiolus bought for 4 USD per flower were sold to
the Arab sheikhs by Bout for 100 USD. And since 1997 the Bout legalized his
business in the other direction and he proceeded to transport frozen meat from
the South Africa to Nigeria.
and UN Special Commissions, Viktor Bout was the one to supply weapon to
Though, we
sure that all secrets will be revealed eventually and in the end of the
previous century Bout had to leave Belgium when the local authorities
got concerned in his financial transactions. He settled in the Arab Emirates
then. Afterwards, in the year 2002, he was mention in the UN report on the illegal
arm dealing as one of the key party at fault in escalation of tension in
various hot points of the world. In the year 2005 the USA authorities
caused the financial assets of Bout frozen in the American borders in view of
his activity. By the way, the movie «Armament baron» was shot by Hollywood
studios on the arm dealer from the Soviet Union.
The script version mentioned the biography facts concerning Viktor Bout, and
Nicolas Cage starred in the movie.
Eventually,
on March 6 of 2008 Viktor Bout was arrested by the Thai authorities in Bangkok by inquiries of USA and Interpol. Bout was stated to
be arrested in place when the secret agents negotiated with but as the
representatives of one of the radical groups from Columbia to purchase the missile of «earth-air»
class. The Thai government refused to judge Bout in their territory by their laws,
since he did not do anything illegal Thailand. In May 2008 the USA government addressed to Thailand with the enquiry of Bout extradition to
the jurisdiction of America.
Though, as a result of some negligence in document execution and intervention
of Russia
with the question of the legal protection of the Russian citizen, the
extradition matter was postponed. Finally in August 2009 the criminal court of Bangkok rejected the enquiry of the American government to
deliver Bout since the USA
failed to provide solid evidences to prove that the activity of the Russian
citizen was illegal. Nevertheless, Viktor Bout did not manage to get free since Columbia appealed to
prison him. They declared that the Columbian organization involved in the matter
is the terrorist group but not political. Bout’s attorneys protested against
this declaration justifying that Columbian government was not eligible to get
involved in judicial proceeding of other countries. In the meantime, Viktor Bout
is still imprisoned.
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