LDPR nominated Viktor Bout to the legislature of the Ulyanovsk region

The LDPR party nominated Viktor Bout, who returned from an American prison, accused of arms smuggling and supporting terrorism, as one of the candidates for the legislature of the Ulyanovsk region. This was reported by TASS with reference to the list proposed for approval at the regional party conference.

As the head of the LDPR faction Dmitry Grachev said at the party conference, Dmitry Bout was nominated in the territorial group No. 10, which includes the territories of the Zavolzhsky single-mandate constituency No. 10 and the Zavolzhsky single-mandate constituency No. 11. Viktor Bout is number one on this list.

Viktor Bout is an entrepreneur and former owner of Air Cess Liberia. The United States was investigating him back in the 1990s: he was suspected of supplying weapons and ammunition to Afghanistan, the countries of the former Yugoslavia and Africa in circumvention of sanctions. In the reports of the UN Security Council, Amnesty International and the US State Department from 2000, 2005 and 2006, Viktor Bout was named the largest supplier of weapons to Africa. In 2008, he was arrested in Thailand at the request of the United States. In 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years in a US prison for illegal arms dealing, supporting terrorism, and conspiring to kill US citizens.

Viktor Bout was exchanged in December 2022 for American basketball player Brittney Griner, who was sentenced in Russia to nine years in prison for illegal drug trafficking without intent to sell (part 1 of article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), as well as drug smuggling in a significant amount (part 2 of article 2 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Three days after returning home from an American prison, on December 12, Viktor Bout entered in the LDPR. he himself claimsthat he was not engaged in the arms business, but worked with aviation technology.

Anastasia Larina