Released former arms trafficker Bout joins Russian ultranationalist party

Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer freed on Thursday from a 25-year US prison sentence in exchange for US basketball star Brittney Griner, has joined the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), its leader said on Monday.

In a video posted on Telegram, LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky, a Kremlin loyalist, said: “I want to thank Viktor Anatolievich (Bout) for the decision he has made and welcome him into the ranks of the best political party in today’s Russia.”

Bout was arrested in Thailand in 2008 and extradited to the US. He was implicated in violating or contributing to violating UN arms embargoes in hotspots across the world including Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Despite its name, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR) has since its founding in 1991 espoused a hardline, ultranationalist ideology, demanding Russia reconquer the countries of the former Soviet Union.  The party  supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Its founder and veteran leader, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, gained a reputation as a political showman for his outrageous stunts and eccentric behaviour before his death in April.

Though seen as a serious contender for power in the 1990s, the LDPR has since assumed a subordinate role in Russia’s political system, providing token opposition to the ruling United Russia bloc while backing the Kremlin on most issues.

It has a history of recruiting controversial personalities into Russian politics. In 2007, Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB agent wanted in Britain for the murder the previous year of Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko was elected to parliament for the LDPR.

Reuters