Nicolas Cage starred as the complex character heavily based on Mr Bout in a 2005 film “Lord of War” based on the Russian’s personal history and black market dealings. His wife, Alla Bout, told the RIA Novosti news agency on Thursday that she was not aware of a possible exchange. “We spoke on the phone yesterday: Viktor has no idea about any prisoner exchange talks between Russia and the US,” he said. Mr. Bout started a successful air transport business in Africa around the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union and was soon selling weapons to parties in multiple armed conflicts, according to the US indictment, from Bosnia to Afghanistan and Libya. The retired officer was arrested in Thailand in 2008 on an Interpol warrant from the United States following a sting operation by US Drug Enforcement Agency agents posing as Colombia’s FARC rebels who wanted to buy weapons from Mr Bout. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2012 for aiding a terrorist organization and conspiring to kill American citizens and has been in US custody ever since. In an interview with Russia’s RIA Novosti a month before the 2012 conviction, Mr Bout described himself as an innocent businessman who helped African nations. “I stood in the way of the Americans because I had a real presence in Africa, where I had a business, I tried to do something. We were evacuating the wounded, rescuing people, delivering medicine and equipment for hospitals and water purification systems.” Asked about arms smuggling, he said: “I never sold guns, but even if I did, there is no crime in you: you can kill a man with a flying frying pan.” Pro-Kremlin lawmakers on Thursday appeared excited about the possibility of a prisoner exchange. “Our country’s goal is to help our citizens who have found themselves in tragic circumstances,” Duma deputy Oleg Morozov told the Vzlyad newspaper. “If there is an exchange, I would wholeheartedly support it. At the end of the day a spy and an apothecary is not much to pay for a decent Russian.”
