Entrepreneur Viktor Bout, who joined the Liberal Democratic Party, began a tour of the regions

Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who was released from an American prison as part of an exchange with the United States for American basketball player Brittney Griner in December 2022 and joined the Liberal Democratic Party shortly after his return, began visiting the regions with his fellow party members. First of all, he visited new territories, where, in particular, he opened regional branches of the Liberal Democratic Party.

And on March 3, the entrepreneur visited Voronezh as part of the highest party school of the Liberal Democratic Party, and Bout was the only “headliner” of the event without parliamentary regalia. In addition to him, the delegation included senators Elena Afanasyeva and Vadim Dengin, State Duma deputies Boris Chernyshov and Yaroslav Nilov. Leonid Slutsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, spoke to the audience via videoconference. In total, about 200 party members and representatives of the youth movement of the political force from the Lipetsk, Tambov, Kursk and Belgorod regions arrived in the Voronezh region.

In the local media, when covering the work of the highest party school of the LDPR, the main attention was paid to Bout, who, in particular, together with Chernyshov, met with the governor of the Voronezh region Alexander Gusev. According to Artem Sokolnikov, head of the department for interaction with the media under the regional government, the parties discussed “issues of the party line.” Sokolnikov posted a selfie with Bout on his Telegram channel, signed with the word “Legend!”.

At the same time, in the government press release about Gusev’s meeting “with the delegation of the Federal Assembly,” Bout’s name was absent. It was noted that the participants of the meeting “discussed the social sphere of the region, namely, social support for the inhabitants of the region, material benefits for pregnant women and families with children, support for the mobilized and the elimination of legal conflicts with various kinds of payments.”

On the second day of the work of the higher party school of the LDPR, Bout, as reported in the press service of the regional branch of the party, “conducted a blitz survey”, in which “all students enthusiastically took part.” On what topic the survey was conducted, the press service did not specify. From March 30 to April 2, the Higher Party School of the LDPR will hold a similar outdoor event in Smolensk, Bout was also invited to it, party spokesman Alexander Dupin told Vedomosti.

The school program is currently under development. In December 2022, Bout took part in the opening of a regional branch of the Liberal Democratic Party in the LPR, in January and February 2023, respectively, in the Zaporozhye region and the DPR. During his visit to Donetsk, the businessman also met with the acting head of the DPR, Denis Pushilin.

On March 7, an exhibition of Bout’s paintings, which he painted in an American prison, will be opened at the Mosfilm studio. The co-organizer of the vernissage, the Russian Peace Foundation, introduces the businessman as a member of the Creative Union of Russian Artists. “Viktor Bout created dozens of paintings and drawings. The thin and light lines of his pencil mastered the laws of perspective, formed volume and shape, lifted multi-ton winged machines into the air, created images of people dear to the heart who remained on an unattainable distant shore,” the announcement of the exhibition says.

Dupin told Vedomosti that, despite expansion into the regions, Bout has not yet decided on his political future.

“The man was accused of arms trafficking, the position of the Russian authorities is that this is not true. What is the message in this for voters, for example, in Crimea, if we are still talking about by-elections in a single-mandate constituency to the State Duma? It is not very clear why the figure of Bout should become a source of additional votes [для ЛДПР]”, – political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko told Vedomosti.

According to political scientist Rostislav Turovsky, figures like Bout are not needed for the Liberal Democratic Party now, since the party’s key task at the moment is to work on Slutsky’s image and “create a new party leader out of him.” “Moreover, Bout does not have a certain image. He will have to think whether he is ready for big politics and with what goals. And for the party, this is far from the main thing, ”he concluded.