His colleague Michael Cichakli told the New York Times: 'He's a vegetarian. Bout also became renowned for his vegetarianism and environmentalism. He believes in saving the rain forest.' 

I had a major pact with the Rabbani government. He said: 'I took sides because I knew what the Taliban was. Rabbani and Massoud were the only hope. My aircraft was the last one out of Bagram air base before the Taliban came.'

court on multiple charges related to his arms dealing career. He was 45 at the time. Russia has always proclaimed his innocence, describing his case as a glaring injustice and attempting to secure his release.  In 2012, he was given a 25-year prison sentence by a U.S.

Bout began a life on the run in 2002 when law enforcement in Belgium issued an arrest warrant for him. It's thought that he used fake passports to move around under a succession of aliases. Bout eventually showed up in Russia in 2003. 

from East Europe, principally Bulgaria, paper Moldova and Ukraine to Liberia and Angola.' The moniker, Merchant of Death, was coined by British Foreign Office Minister Peter Hain, who said in 2003: 'Bout is the leading merchant of death who is the principal conduit for planes and supply routes that take arms...





If his planes landed on remote airstrips stuffed with weapons, he wanted them stuffed with something else when they left.  According to the 2017 book Operation Relentless by Damien Lewis, Bout's mantra was never fly empty.

He said in 2003: 'What I really want to do now is to take one of my helicopters to the Russian Arctic north and make wildlife films for National Geographic and the Discovery channel.' It was in Africa where Bout honed in on his environmentalism, photographing wildlife and script learning about local tribes.



Among Bout's most infamous acts, was stealing $32 billion worth of weaponry from Ukraine between 1992 and 1998. His fleet of aircraft grew to such an existent, Bout was regarded as having his own air force of about 60 planes. 

It was at this time that Bout became friends with despotic leaders across the continent. In 2000, security agencies discovered that Bout was at the helm of possibly the biggest arms trafficking operation in the world. 

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