SARATOV, July 2 Penza regional branch of the LDPR nominated Viktor Bout as a candidate for deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Ulyanovsk region, said the branch coordinator Sergei Marinin.
«Viktor Anatolyevich was nominated as a candidate for deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Ulyanovsk region on the party list at the head of the territorial group in the Zavolzhsky district of the city of Ulyanovsk,» he said.
In 2008, Viktor Bout was arrested in Thailand as a result of a provocative operation by US intelligence agencies and then taken to the United States. He was accused of preparing a conspiracy to kill American citizens and material support for terrorism, all of which he denied. In Thailand, Bout won two extradition cases in the first instance, but these decisions were overturned at the appeal stage. Then he was taken to the United States with gross violations of both Thai and American law, and in 2012 a jury in New York found the Russian guilty. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Bout returned to his homeland in December 2022, as a result of a prisoner exchange between Russia and the United States — Bout was exchanged for Britney Griner, who was serving a nine-year sentence in Russia on a drug smuggling case.
After his release, Viktor Bout became a member of the Liberal Democratic Party.