The Wall Street Journal also reported quotes of “people familiar with the matter” and that Bout had brokered the arms deal with “two Houthi representatives who had travelled to Moscow under the cover of buying pesticides and vehicles and visited a Lada factory”.
The sources added that they didn’t know if Bout was acting directly for the Kremlin or just with the Kremlin’s tacit approval.
Iran has become a close Russian ally since the Kremlin invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The Kremlin increasingly views Iran’s allies in the Middle East as useful for unsettling Western diplomatic alliances and economies.
The Wall Street Journal said that the first two arms deliveries negotiated by Bout will be AK-47 rifles, one of the most durable rifles ever produced and a successful Kremlin export since it was designed by Mikhail Kalashnikov in 1947.
‘Might potentially sell’
“During the trip, Houthi representatives also discussed other weapons the Russian side might potentially sell, including Kornet anti-tank missiles and antiaircraft weapons,” it quoted European officials as saying. “The deliveries could start as early as October to the port of Hodeidah under the cover of food supplies.”
Bout was freed on the tarmac of Al Bateen Executive Airport in Abu Dhabi on December 8 2022 in a scene reminiscent of a Cold War spy swap. He was flown in on a private jet and handed over to waiting dark-suited Russian diplomats who then released Ms Griner.
Bout had already served 12 years in a US maximum security prison of his 25-year sentence and reportedly kept a poster of Vladimir Putin on the wall of his cell.
Since his release, Bout has become a Russian politician for the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party and an occasional pro-war, pro-Kremlin pundit on Russian TV.
