[thumpsky]

Viktor Bout - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Viktor Bout is a former Soviet military major who retired from the service in 1993 and became an international arms dealer [2]. Often referred to as the Embargo Buster, Bout made a significant amount of money selling illegal arms to countries that the UN has placed arms embargoes on. He first appeared on the radar when he sold weapons to African nations in civil wars under such embargoes.

Little is known about Bout before his military career, other than he was born to two Russian parents in 1967. According to his official passport, he was born in Dushanbe, USSR, which is now Tajikistan. However, Bout stated in a 2002 radio interview that he was born near what is now Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and a 2001 South African intelligence file listed him as Ukrainian in origin[13][14]. After military training, he worked at a Russian military base in Vitebsk as a navigator. His duties expanded, eventually including the training of commando troops of the Russian Air Force.[15] In 1991 Bout graduated from the prestigious Soviet Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow. He is said to be fluent in 6 languages, including Russian, Uzbek, English, French and Portuguese. After this he became a translator for the Soviet Army in Angola. In the same year the military base he was serving at was dissolved due to the collapse of the Soviet Union and Bout and his colleagues found themselves highly trained, but without jobs. He then started the Transavia Export Cargo company, which aided Belgian soldiers in Somalia in 1993. Russian sources have claimed that, in return for a cut of the profits, Bout was staked three Antonovs by the GRU of which he may well have been a member, given his association with the GRU school of foreign languages. Another of his early clients was the Islamic State of Afghanistan (later it was known by the name the Northern Alliance). Between 1992 and 1995, Bout made an alleged $50 million from supplying several Afghan groups.[16] This helped him grow his empire.

In 1995 Bout established the Trans Aviation Network Group in the Belgian city of Oostende. The company delivered weapons to the Islamic State of Afghanistan, but this relationship came to an end when the Taliban drove that government out of Kabul and reduced its control to just a few northern provinces. In May 1995 one of his shipments for the Afghan government was intercepted by the Taliban. In August 1995 the crew of this shipment escaped (or was released) from Afghanistan and soon after that Bout had a new customer: the Taliban.[17]

[jumper666jr]

it is. it is. it is

[chickenjoe]

I would think so, but I wouldn't join because I'm a chicken.

[thisworks]

Most definetly!

Entreprenuer's need discipline too!