Viktor Bout's wife says she doesn't know about plans to exchange her husband

Alla But. Archive photoMOSCOW, May 21.Alla But, the wife of Russian businessman Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence in the United States on charges of conspiring to kill US citizens and materially support terrorism, does not know anything specific about plans to exchange her husband for Americans in Russian prisons, but hopes that these plans really exist and will come true, Alla Bout herself said to RIA Novosti on Saturday. Viktor Bout was arrested in Thailand at the American request in 2008 as a result of a provocative operation by American intelligence services and taken to the United States. In 2012, a jury in New York found the Russian guilty of preparing a conspiracy to kill US citizens and material support for terrorism. Booth denies the allegations on all counts.Viktor Bout was not provided with a doctor, despite the embassy's requests «Despite the fact that the media now both here and in the United States are publishing news about the allegedly upcoming exchange of my husband for US citizens in Russian prisons, I do not know anything specific about such plans or about the negotiations that, according to the media, are supposedly going on now,» she told the agency. «I don't want to flatter myself and I don't want to give false hope to Victor, but still I really hope that there is a grain of truth in these rumors, and such an exchange is really being discussed,» Bout added. Most often, as candidates for an exchange for Viktor Bout in the Russian and American media, the American basketball player Brittney Griner, who is under investigation in Russia on charges of trying to transport drugs across the border, and Paul Whelan, convicted in the Russian Federation for 16 years in prison on charges of espionage, Bout recalled.An exhibition of Viktor Bout's paintings will be held in Vladimir and SevastopolAt one time there was a lot of talk about the exchange of Viktor Bout for Paul Whelan, especially after the summit of Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden in Geneva, she recalled. York, she is now retired, even said then in a press release that she issued through Victor's American lawyer, Steve Ziss, that it was high time for Victor to go home, and he should be exchanged for Paul Whelan, «Bout's wife said. According to her, the references Whelan in connection with the likely exchange then stopped, but a few days ago, in the Russian, and then in the American media, information was circulated that the exchange of Viktor Bout for the African-American basketball star Brittney Griner was allegedly being prepared. «The rumors are very persistent: when the wave of these rumors subsided in Russia , she rose in America. Victor was again in the focus of the American media, this has not been for a very long time. I don’t know, to be honest, to how to react to this,» Booth said.Viktor Bout's wife commented on the results of the meeting between Putin and Biden «Viktor, of course, sees all this on American television, on CNN and FoxTV channels, which are available in prison. We were very happy when Konstantin Yaroshenko was exchanged for Trevor Reed, this gave us hope. But now we are not talking about the possibility of his exchange for Greiner, because the exchange of Yaroshenko is a real fact that gives hope, and the exchange of Viktor for Greiner can only inspire false hope. it will be very difficult to worry about it,» she explained. On Thursday, the Forbes magazine website published an article by an American lawyer, journalist and author of popular books about the famous trials of Gerald Posner, who in the past wrote about the Viktor Bout case, entitled «Brittney Griner is involved in a possible exchange of prisoners with Russia. «In the article, Posner, who has extensive acquaintances in the US judicial and law enforcement system, writes with reference to a «non-state source with knowledge of what is happening» that negotiations for a Greiner exchange are «ongoing, but in the early stages».Ryabkov spoke about the exchange of Yaroshenko and ReidThe US State Department declined to comment on this information, and the US President's special envoy for hostage issues, Roger Carstens, told Forbes that he had no comments, the article says. At the private Richardson Center, which specializes in negotiating the release of American hostages and prisoners in foreign countries, the author of the article was told only that the situation with the Greiner exchange was «very delicate», refusing to comment further on this issue. Posner also spoke with former federal judge Shira Sheindlin, who after the guilty verdict of the jury at the trial, Buta chose for the Russian the minimum term of imprisonment provided for by the articles of the prosecution — 25 years in prison. In an interview with American media after her resignation, Sheindlin called the sentence to the Russian inappropriate and excessive, and stressed that she was forced to pass such a sentence because the jury found Bout guilty. on Brittney Greiner, who in the United States would most likely get off with a fine for the same offense that she is accused of in Russia, seems problematic, Judge Sheindlin told Posner. «It would be better for Bout, who, in my opinion, has already spent too much time, to exchange at once for both — Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner. In this case, there would be some moral equivalence that few people could complain about, «she said.