Viktor Bout

Viktor Anatolyevich Bout (born 13 January 1967) is a Russian arms dealer and politician. A weapons manufacturer and former Soviet military translator, he used his companies to smuggle arms from Eastern Europe to Africa and the Middle East during the 1990s and early 2000s. Bout gained the epithet the "Merchant of Death" after British minister Peter Hain read a report to the United Nations in 2003 on Bout's wide-reaching operations, extensive clientele, and willingness to bypass embargoes.