Arms and the man Is a ‘Merchant of Death’, supplying weapons to terrorists, as the British and US governments claim, or an innocent victim of an international vendetta? The CIA certainly believes his scalp is worth $500 million but Bout’s friends tell Christopher Silvester a different story

y now, a Russian citizen named Viktor Thai police and special forces worth a further $200 mil- Bout (pronounced Boot) may have lion. Nicknamed ‘the Merchant of Death’ after British been extradited from , where Foreign Office minister Peter Hain referred to him as he has been held since March 2008, to ‘’s chief merchant of death’ in 2002, Bout has been the , a country he has in the sights of American agencies for over a decade, never visited before, for allegedly con- while his moves have been monitored by British intelli- spiring to smuggle arms to a group of gence for just as long. In 2002, an MI6 plan to arrest him Marxist guerrillas in , another country he has on arrival in Athens was thwarted when he was suppos- Bnever visited. ‘I think that if that happens none of Viktor’s edly tipped off at the last minute by the CIA. MI6 agents friends will ever see him again,’ says one of them, sent an encrypted message to Whitehall after his plane businessman Mikhail Belozersky. Fifty commandos will took off from Moldova, but the plane was then diverted guard Bout on the way to a military airport, into mountainous terrain, vanishing from radar screens where a US government jet has been waiting on the for 90 minutes before it landed in Athens without Bout Tarmac since late August, when a Thai court granted his on board. As one European intelligence official has since . The reason for the high-level security is that explained: ‘There were only two intelligence services Bout has been on an American wanted list for several that could have decrypted the British transmission in so years. Once extradited, he will face other charges and, if short a time: the and the Americans.’ convicted, will most likely die in a US jail. A tall, portly man with a Stalin moustache, Bout, The Americans want him so badly that they have branded ‘one of the world’s most prolific arms traf- offered a $500 million package of assistance to the Thai fickers’, was the model for Yuri Orlov, an unscrupulous government, including Black Hawk helicopters worth arms trafficker played by in the 2005

$296 million and technical assistance and training for Hollywood film , while a Russian film, alamy. reuters. laif. getty images

2 4 ES MAGAZINE standard.co.uk/lifestyle Right: Viktor Bout in a cell at the Criminal Court in Bangkok in February 2010. Left: militia holding Stingers in Kandahar in 1999 at a time when Bout was said by the UN to be supplying them with weapons

Left: Viktor Bout (left) in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2001. Right: a Colombian soldier demonstrates a weapon confiscated from FARC, 2002 Below: Viktor Bout’s wife Alla speaking at a press conference about her husband’s extradition in Moscow in September

Le : Mikhail Belozersky. Right: Richard Chichakli with Viktor Bout in Moscow, 2007

Kandahar, was based on an incident in 1995 her divorce, the couple married and had a Bout became an international public enemy. when one of Bout’s planes was seized by the daughter Elizabeth, who is now a teenager It has been alleged that during the ‘second Taliban in . and lives in Spain, while Alla lives in Congo war’ (2000-2002) Bout supplied Moscow and frequently visits her husband in weapons to more than 20 armed groups ut what exactly is his value his Thai prison. from eight states involved in the confl ict. In to the Americans? Douglas When the collapsed in 1991, addition to all this, Bout has said that his Farah, a former reporter and Bout found himself stranded in , mother wept when she read a newspaper security consultant who has where he decided to go into the aviation cargo report claiming he was a in the KGB. written a book about Bout business, purchasing three Antonov An-12 A costly Belgian investigation of Bout for called Merchant of Death: aircraft for $120,000. His fl eet business in the alleged , as well as arms B Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes 1990s, operating through a complex network tra cking, launched in 2002, had initially War Possible, has speculated about what of companies in di erent countries, was resulted in an arrest warrant being issued by he could o er the US authorities in a plea based in Ostend, , and later in a Belgian judge. This expired under a bargain. ‘He could tell a great deal about the Sharjah, one of the Gulf states belonging to statute of limitation in 2007 after no Russian-led networks that continue to arm the , where his brother evidence was submitted to the court. jihadi movements in Somalia and Yemen. It Sergei joined as operations manager. From Yet despite this and despite Bout is likely he also knows how the Russian mili- the Sharjah hub his planes ferried frozen being under investigation in the US, tary intelligence and arms structure works, chickens and fresh vegetables to mining some of his companies still worked including its interests from Iran to Venezuela camps, gladioli from to Dubai, for the UK Ministry of Defence, fl ying and elsewhere. His knowledge base, although Ikea furniture into the armoured vehicles and he is only 43, goes back more than two countries of the Common- ‘IF YOU ARREST troops to Kosovo, and for the decades and possibly extends to the heart of wealth of Independent States Pentagon, supplying opera- Russian campaigns around the globe.’ (CIS), and the mineral coltan, EVERY TAXI tions in and transporting ‘Usually you’d expect these kinds of a component in electronic DRIVER WHO personnel to Afghanistan. activities to a ect the person, both outwardly technology, from the Congo GAVE A RIDE TO ‘If you arrest every taxi and inwardly,’ Belozersky told an interviewer to East Africa. At the same driver who gave a ride to for the global TV network Today , so UN investigators and SOME BAD some bad person, there 2008. ‘I would think a person who brings Western intelligence agencies PERSON, THERE won’t be any taxi drivers left death to people should look somewhat allege, his planes carried WON’T BE ANY in the streets,’ Bout told the di erent from ordinary people. However, weapons from the CIS and Russian business newspaper there was nothing of the kind in Viktor.’ to rebel TAXI DRIVERS Kommersant in 2008. ‘I am a Depending on which source one chooses to groups in sub-Saharan Africa LEFT IN THE shipper. I get an order, I get believe, Bout was born in 1967, in in contravention of UN sanc- STREETS’ paid. I send a request, get an (according to his USSR passport) or Turk- tions, sometimes in return for approval, instruct my crew, menistan (his own claim in a radio interview) payment in blood diamonds. VIKTOR BOUT the crew comes in, loads the or Uzbekistan (The Guardian), or He supplied arms to the aircraft, gets the shipping (the House of Commons Foreign A airs legitimate government in Afghanistan papers, clears Customs. All these tales Committee). His father was an administrator and allegedly to that country’s Northern about illegal fl ights are not supported with and his mother worked in accounting. Bout Alliance of warlords and later to the Taliban anything. I am sorry, everyone in the transport went to Moscow, where he studied economics prior to 9/11. The Americans have made per- business ships weapons if it is not an illegal and trained as a military interpreter, learning sistent e orts to link his aircraft to al-Qaeda. cargo, if the papers meet all regulations… What to speak at least fi ve languages, after which In 2000, a UN report on sanctions busting sanctions did I break? Where’s the evidence? he served as a in the Russian and arms smuggling in Africa named Bout as Nobody has presented any data.’ air force, partly in . While in a gun runner, along with Richard Chichakli, Since I cannot speak with Bout, I contacted Angola, he met and fell in love with a married a Syrian-born naturalised US citizen, who his friend Chichakli, whom the US authorities Russian woman called Alla. He wooed her had been commercial director of the believe is the fi nancial mastermind of Bout’s

COURTESY RICHARDwith CHICHAKLI. TASS PHOTO poems of his own composition. After Sharjah International Airport Free Zone. alleged arms tra cking empire. Chichakli was

standard.co.uk/lifestyle ES MAGAZINE 2 7 working as an accountant in Texas had known Bout for a little over when the US government decided three years, runs a foundation to target him in an investigation providing aid to law enforcement of Bout in 2002. In 2005 he was and armed forces veterans living ‘designated’ by the Office of on meagre Russian state pensions. Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a He says that Bout participated subsidiary of the US Treasury, in its charitable activities. which meant that all his assets According to Belozersky, Bout in America were frozen and his had given up the air cargo property confiscated and sold. business entirely in the last few Bout had already been designated years. Instead, he had been and, according to an informant, involved with the construction Above: Nicolas Cage plays a character modelled on Bout in Lord of War (2005) was prevented from receiving industry in Russia and had also $6 billion in profits as a result, a tried to start a business repairing figure that Chichakli dismisses as fantasy. The as representatives of FARC, the Colombian light aircraft. ‘As for psychology,’ says US press routinely describes Chichakli as hav- Marxist guerrilla group, seeking surface-to- Belozersky, ‘he’s an absolutely ordinary man, ing been ‘on the run’ since 2005. But although air missiles and grenade launchers, and met he rarely drinks, he loves his family very much.’ Chichakli did indeed leave the States, because with al-Kassar in Spain. Since FARC is Belozersky also knew Smulian. Early in he ‘couldn’t buy a hamburger’ there, no indict- classified as a terrorist organisation by the US 2008, Belozersky told Russia Today, Smulian ment had been filed against him until earlier and as the missiles might be used to attack had approached his ex-employer Bout with this year when he was indicted on various American helicopters, the US authorities a business proposition. He said he knew a charges alongside Bout. were able to issue an arrest warrant. Six Danish company that wanted to export months later, exactly the same fiction would machinery for the manufacture of disposable hichakli is an easy man to con- be used to entrap Bout. ‘When first started needles and syringes in Russia, some of which tact. He has a website refuting talking about going after Bout, there was were to be sent as aid to Africa. Bout told the various allegations against heated dialogue among my agents over Belozersky, who offered to provide the site him, with relevant documents whether we should use the same scenario we and recruit the manpower. Either this is an on display, and he has posted did for al-Kassar,’ former DEA operations elaborate cover story for the FARC deal or several videos on YouTube in chief Michael Braun has said. ‘I was convinced Smulian had misled Bout and Belozersky. C which he demonstrates the flaws in the US that guys like Bout and al-Kassar have enor- After a brief exchange with Smulian in the government’s case against him. Send him an mous egos and simply couldn’t believe that lobby of the Bangkok Sofitel on 6 March 2008, email and he responds within hours. I inter- the US would use the same gambit twice.’ Bout and Belozersky were arrested by DEA viewed him on his mobile phone in Russia Undercover DEA operatives began negoti- agents, though interestingly Belozersky was – he currently lives in Moscow – and he ating with Andrew Smulian, a 48-year-old released and told to leave for home without methodically explained the twists and turns British-born, military-trained pilot who had delay. Smulian is something of a of the Bout saga as he sees them. worked for one of Bout’s companies, to buy figure of mystery – there are no ‘I have known Victor Bout for 16 years,’ he surface-to-air missiles as well as helicopters images of him on the internet, but he told me. ‘I know his family, I ate in his house, I at a series of meetings in the Netherlands, is remembered as a ‘nice guy’ on a slept in his bed, I know his daughter, his wife, Antilles, Denmark and Romania. Smulian networking site for pilots. He was his mother. I was the only foreign man at the spoke with Bout in a series of phone calls that subsequently arrested and is expected funeral of his father among 20 people, all of were monitored and recorded, to give evidence against them Russian.’ He tells me he will talk to Alla and emails were sent from a Bout as part of a plea- Bout about hiring a US lawyer for Viktor. ‘I’m newly created Gmail address undercover bargain arrangement. not sure how we are going to pay for it,’ he to a bogus FARC email For the past two and a continues. ‘This battle in Thailand has cost address agreeing the date for dea operatives half years Bout has been hundreds of thousands, if not close to a a meeting in Thailand. The posed as languishing in a top- million dollars, so far, and without his brother Gmail account was created representatives security Thai jail while [Sergei], this man does not control a dime. I under the subscriber name his lawyer has fought the say he is broke. I said that in 2001 and, trust ‘Viktor But’, who has a Mos- of farC, the extradition bid and the me, if I hadn’t given him a credit card he would cow address and a telephone colombian Russian government has not have been able to stay alive or stay the number that was the same as marxist lobbied for his release. At same weight. I got a credit card with his name the one used to communicate first, the Thai courts and his wife’s name on it to buy what they with Smulian in Romania. guerrilla group, found in his favour, on the needed. He rebuilt his life a little bit, but he’s The emails are described in seeking grenade grounds that he had not not the six-billion-dollar man.’ the US indictment, but can launchers committed any crime on Although Bout’s US assets were frozen in the US prosecutor prove that Thai soil, but this was 2004, he remained at liberty in Russia, where it was Bout who actually sent overturned on appeal as the authorities refused to admit his com- them? Bout has insisted that the DEA the US government exerted immense plicity in . Some say that he is case against him is entirely a matter of political and diplomatic pressure – and valuable to the Russian military and intelli- odna babka skazala, a Russian proverb dangled that $500 million carrot under gence apparatus as a sort of junkyard dog. So meaning ‘an old lady said’ – in other words, the Thai government’s nose. how could the Americans bring him down? hearsay and gossip. For his part, Bout may remember what he The US Drug Enforcement Administration In March 2008, Bout travelled to Thailand told an interviewer back in 2003: ‘My clients devised a strategy, which they first used to in the company of Belozersky. They were [are] the governments. I keep my mouth shut. ensnare Syrian-born arms dealer Monzer friends who swam and trained together at the If I told you everything I’d get the red hole

al-Kassar. Undercover DEA operatives posed same Moscow fitness club. Belozersky, who right here.’ He pointed to his forehead. rex features. alamy

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