Viktor Bout, the arms supplier the US swapped for Brittney Griner, joins Russian ultranationalist get together and could run for parliament

• Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout returned house last week just after a prisoner swap for Brittney Griner.

• On Monday he turned a member of a far-right, ultranationalist party that backs the war in Ukraine.

• Bout’s determination was supported by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Vladimir Putin.

Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer the US swapped for WNBA star Brittney Griner last 7 days, officially joined a considerably-suitable, ultranationalist social gathering, which could set him up for a seat in the Russian parliament.

The infamous arms supplier — identified as the “Merchant of Demise”— been given his membership to the professional-Kremlin Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) on Monday, the BBC reported.

In a online video posted on Telegram, the chief of the LDPR, Leonid Slutsky, thanked Bout for joining “the greatest political party in present-day Russia,” according to The Guardian.

Regardless of its name, the LDPR adopts a hardline, ultranationalist ideology. Since its founding in 1992, the social gathering has demanded Russia reconquer the nations around the world of the former Soviet Union, according to Reuters. It has backed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Bout returned residence past 7 days soon after a superior-profile prisoner exchange for US basketball star Griner, who had been in Russian custody considering that February. Griner was discovered responsible of drug smuggling in early August and was sentenced to 9 years in a Russian penal colony.

Bout has invested the earlier 12 many years in an American jail, after getting discovered guilty of conspiring to help terrorists and kill Individuals.

He was a notable global arms dealer throughout the 1990s and is believed to have performed company in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Angola, Liberia, Rwanda, and Afghanistan.

He was caught and arrested in Thailand in 2008 after a US Drug Enforcement Agency sting operation.

Bout’s new membership of the LDPR implies that he could seek a seat in parliament, although the arms supplier explained to Russian media that he experienced no speedy designs to participate in “any elections,” The Guardian reported.

Tale carries on

His entry into politics was applauded by close Putin allies, which includes Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is the founder of the Wagner mercenary team.

“Viktor Bout is not a person, he is an case in point of firmness,” Prigozhin reported in a assertion posted by his catering corporation, Harmony, in accordance to The Guardian.

“Bout will undoubtedly be very good at the head of any present celebration and any motion,” he additional.

The Pentagon, having said that, has expressed issues that the convicted arms supplier could return to his outdated line of organization.

“I assume there is a problem that he would return to doing the identical variety of work that he’s completed in the earlier,” a senior defense formal told journalists final 7 days, Insider earlier noted.

In an interview with the Russian point out tv community RT previous week, Bout stated he “wholeheartedly” supports Putin’s war in Ukraine, including that he would “surely go as a volunteer” if he had the possibility.

The arms supplier also explained he had a photograph of Putin in his prison cell, telling RT: “Why not? I am happy that I am Russian and that our president is Putin.”

Read through the original report on Business Insider