<\/p>\n
Viktor Bout will campaign for a seat in the Ulyanov Oblast Legislative Assembly with the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR).<\/p>\n
A Russian arms dealer freed in a prisoner swap for US basketball star Brittney Griner has been chosen as a far-right party candidate for a seat, according to state news agency RIA in the Russian regional legislature.<\/p>\n
Viktor Bout, formerly dubbed “The Merchant of Death,” served 10 years of a 25-year sentence in US prisons on arms-trafficking charges until his release last December in the exchange with Griner , an Olympic gold medalist.<\/p>\n
RIA quoted an official from the ultra-nationalist local organization of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) as saying that Bout had been nominated as a candidate for the legislative assembly of the Ulyanovsk region in central Russia.<\/p>\n
Bout was arrested by US agents during a sting in Thailand in 2008.<\/p>\n
The US Department of Justice described him as one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers, allegations Bout has always denied.<\/p>\n
Griner was sentenced in 2022 in Russia to nine years in a penal colony for possessing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia, after a trial that Washington called a sham. Griner has restarted his sports career.<\/p>\n
Bout publicly joined the LDPR after his return to Russia. Despite its name, the LDPR holds far-right ultranationalist views and strongly supports President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n
The LDPR has already provided a home for Andrei Lugovoi, who is wanted in the UK for the 2006 murder of former KGB officer and Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko.<\/p>\n
Lugovoi has been a member of the LDPR in Russia’s national parliament since 2007.<\/p>\n
Litvinenko died after drinking tea poisoned with polonium-210, a radioactive isotope.<\/p>\n