Who is Viktor Bout, the prisoner the U.S. may trade for Brittney Griner?
Bout is a Russian who was the world's most notorious arms dealer in the 1990s and early 2000s. He's serving a 25-year prison sentence in Illinois, but could be freed as part of a U.S.-Russia swap.
Where most people saw chaos, Viktor Bout saw opportunity.
Bout, a 55-year-old Russian, was the world's most notorious arms dealer before a U.S. court convicted him in 2011 and sent him to a prison in Illinois. He's now the focus of a potential prisoner swap between the U.S. and Russia, which holds two Americans the Biden administration hopes to free.
Bout was in his mid-20s when the Soviet Union fractured in 1991, leaving vast quantities of Soviet military hardware scattered across 15 newly minted countries.
