Back in December 2022, the Biden administration secured the release of professional basketball player Brittney Griner by giving Viktor Bout, the world’s most notorious arms dealer with a metaphorical ocean of blood on his hands, back to Russia. At the time, I wrote:
This summer [Douglas Farah, a biographer of Bout] argued trading Griner and Whelan for Bout was worthwhile, contending that as an old man, Bout was unlikely to return to the arms trade. But there were other consequences glossed over, most notably that by giving Vladimir Putin what he wants, we make other Americans in Russia more likely to be detained and used as bargaining chips in the future. And every other two-bit dictator and warlord around the world is watching and learning, too.
This morning, the Wall Street Journal reports that the old man is indeed back to his old tricks, helping put dangerous weapons into the hands of the world’s worst people:
Since his release, Bout has joined a pro-Kremlin far-right party and won a seat in a local assembly in 2023, seemingly turning the page on his days as an arms broker. But when Houthi emissaries went to Moscow in August to negotiate the purchase of $10 million worth of automatic weapons, they encountered a familiar face: the mustachioed Bout, according to a European security official and other people familiar with the matter.
The potential arms transfers, which have yet to be delivered, stop well short of the sale of Russian anti-ship or anti-air missiles that could pose a significant threat to the U.S. military’s efforts to protect international shipping from the Houthis’ attacks.
…The first two deliveries will be mostly AK-74s, an upgraded version of the AK-47 assault rifle. But during the trip, Houthi representatives also discussed other weapons the Russian side might potentially sell, including Kornet antitank missiles and antiaircraft weapons, according to the European official and other people familiar with the matter.
The deliveries could start as early as October to the port of Hodeidah under the cover of food supplies, where Russia has already carried out several grain deliveries, they said.
Everyone was relieved to see Griner released from Russian custody, but as I wrote at the time, there were serious bad consequences for the U.S. in releasing a man our State Department called “the personification of evil.”
Now we learn that the assurance that Bout was unlikely to return to the arms trade was wishful thinking.