By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-10-07 23:59:14 | Updated at 2024-10-08 02:58:54
4 hours ago
The Russian government has rejected reports that notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout is involved in weapons deals with Islamist militant groups in Yemen.
“We tend to classify this in the category of fakes or attempts at a verbal attack against our people’s representatives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, following a report about Bout’s alleged activities in the US-based Wall Street Journal newspaper.
The newspaper reported that Bout, who was released from US custody in a prisoner exchange in 2022, appears to have brokered the sale of small arms to the Houthi militant group, primarily Kalashnikov assault rifles.
Bout himself praised the Houthi militants, saying they did a “pretty good job” by shooting down more than 10 US reconnaissance drones despite limited resources.
But Bout described the newspaper article as targeted information for the birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who turned 72 on Monday.
Bout claimed the US media used his name and image to attract attention, because there are no well-known actors operating in Yemen.
