The Viktor Bout hostage swap is a victory for the Kremlin

After a quiet swap in the United Arab Emirates, the American basketball star Brittney Griner is out of a Russian prison while the Russian arms dealer and presumed intelligence asset Viktor Bout is out of a US one. A little glimmer of humanity amidst Cold War 2.0, or a dangerous hostage exchange with Moscow getting the best of the deal? Sadly, this is more the latter.

Viktor Bout, a former Soviet army officer and alleged military intelligence asset, emerged as both an arms dealer and a gonzo cargo agent in the chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. His fleet of ex-Soviet aircraft and pilots were notorious for their willingness and ability to fly anything anywhere. Sometimes, this meant shipping guns into war zones – Bout was reportedly the inspiration for the Nicholas Cage film Lord of War. Occasionally, it might mean delivering aid to Rwanda and Afghanistan when others dared not.

In 2008 though, the US Drug Enforcement Agency caught the so-called ‘Merchant of Death’ in a sting operation in Thailand, where he thought he was negotiating selling weapons to the FARC, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.