Russia tries to spring FARC arms merchant

Douglas Farah:

It did not take the Russian government long to the Russian government friends and lawyers for the recently-arrested Viktor Boutto begin working to protect him again.

The tactic now is to seek the extradition of Bout, arrested in Thailand in an elaborate sting operation run by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), back to Russia, rather than the United States.

Of course, Bout, who has armed rebels, criminals and terrorists from the Taliban in Afghanistan to the RUF in Sierra Leone to the FARC in Colombia, has always operated under the protection of Russian military intelligence.

Sending him home is setting him free, without ever going to trial. There are no charges against him in Russia and Russia, although a member of Interpol has, since 2002, ignored an Interpol arrest warrant issued at the behest of the Belgians.

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This is an interesting strategy by the Russians, but I doubt the Thai government will fall for it. The Thais have much closer ties to the US that go back a long way including a time when the communist in Moscow were trying to undermine Thailand. There have been some noises about the Thais trying Bout. That could be interesting, but I suspect they will try to get him to the US as quickly as they can.