He said Bout's rise stemmed from the end of Communism and the rise of capitalism in the early 1990s in the former Soviet bloc. Others have said it was actually Angola - which would make sense, as Russia had a large military presence there at the time, Farah told CNN. "He graduated from the Military Institute on Foreign Languages, a well-known feeder school for Russian military intelligence, and is known to have a true gift for languages," Farah told Mother Jones.īout has said that he worked as a military officer in Mozambique. "His mother was supposedly very high in the KGB," Farah said, adding that Bout has consistently denied that. Farah told Mother Jones magazine in 2007 that according to his multiple passports, Bout was born in 1967 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, the son of a bookkeeper and an auto mechanic.Ī pro-Bout website - Farah said Bout put it up himself - says he was born into an "average home and an average family" and that his parents were employees in the "administrative and accounting fields."īut, Farah said, some reports are that Bout's parents were involved in intelligence. "His early days are a mystery," said Douglas Farah, a senior fellow at the International Assessment and Strategy Center who co-authored a book on Bout. Drug Enforcement Administration agents led a sting operation by posing as members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), officials said.
American law enforcement officers have spent years pursuing him, and the extradition process from Thailand was an arduous one for them.īout is accused of supplying weapons to war zones around the world, from Sierra Leone to Afghanistan. officers or employees, conspiring to acquire and use an anti-aircraft missile and conspiring to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. He faces charges in the United States of conspiring to kill U.S. (CNN) - He's known as the "Merchant of Death" and the "Lord of War," - an alleged international arms dealer straight out of a cloak-and-dagger spy novel who eluded authorities for years and inspired Hollywood villains.īut in reality, according to those who have seen or met Viktor Bout, he is a somber man, sometimes nattily dressed, a wheeler-dealer who has insisted he is innocent of the allegations leveled against him.īout, a Russian citizen and former military officer, speaks six languages "and I could see him bargaining in all six at the same time," wrote CNN's Jill Dougherty in 2008, recalling her meeting with Bout in 2002 in Moscow, Russia.īout arrived in New York late Tuesday after being extradited from Thailand.
Read more as the accused arms dealer pleads not guilty. NEW:Bout sees himself as a soldier and businessman.NEW: Little is known about Bout's early days.
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