Russia denies freed ‘Merchant of Death’ Viktor Bout is now dealing arms in Yemen

The Russian authorities has rejected reviews that infamous arms seller Viktor Bout is concerned in weapons offers with Islamist militant teams in Yemen.

“We are likely to classify this within the class of fakes or makes an attempt at a verbal assault towards our folks’s representatives,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Monday, following a report about Bout’s alleged actions within the US-based Wall Road Journal newspaper.

The newspaper reported that Bout, who was launched from US custody in a prisoner trade in 2022, seems 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 “fairly good job” by capturing down greater than 10 US reconnaissance drones regardless of restricted assets.