Vladimir Putin's top allies in Russia are mocking America over the recent prisoner swap that saw the US release convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for WNBA star Brittney Griner, claiming that Russia got the better end of the deal.
Maria Butina, the pro-Putin MP elected to Russia's Duma after serving a US prison sentence for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, led the charge in taunting the US over Thursday's exchange. 
'The fact that Russia pushed through the exchange of Bout, whom America fundamentally did not want to give away for many years, right now means that, like in The Godfather, EvDen eVe NAkliyAt we "made them an offer that cannot be refused,"' Butina boasted in Russian on her Telegram channel. 
'This is a position of strength, comrades,' added Butina, who was deported back to Russia in 2019 after serving an 18-month sentence in the US.
On Thursday, the US and Russia announced that Griner, who was sentenced to nine years of hard prison time on cannabis-related charges, had been exchanged for Bout. 









Maria Butina (left), the pro-Putin MP in Russia's Duma, led the charge in taunting the US for releasing Viktor Bout (right on Thursday) in exchange for WBNA star Brittney Griner





Putin gave us no other option, White House insists as it...
Griner is seen on her way to being swapped in the prisoner trade in Abu Dhabi






'This is such a big win for America, but at the same time a huge fail.

Trading a figure like Bout for a basketball player…' read a comment on a sports news site






In Russia, Bout is seen as a swashbuckling businessman who was unjustly imprisoned after an overly aggressive US sting operation






'What shame and embarrassment!

They took an innocent person hostage, blamed her for something, the devils, just to trade in for a criminal!' one read on YouTube






Alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout looks out from inside the detention center while waiting for a hearing on extradition at criminal court on May 19, 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand

Bout has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence, describing himself as a legitimate businessman who didn_t sell weapons.
Bout's case fit well into Moscow's narrative that Washington sought to trap and oppress innocent Russians on flimsy grounds.
'From the resonant Bout case, a real `hunt_ by Americans for Russian citizens around the world has unfolded,' the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote last year.
Increasingly, Russia cited his case as a human rights issue.

His wife and lawyer claimed his health deteriorated in the harsh prison environment where foreigners are not always eligible for breaks that Americans might receive.
Bout had not been scheduled to be released until 2029. He was held in a medium-security facility in Marion, Illinois.
'He got a hard deal,' said Scheindlin, the retired judge, noting the U.S.

sting operatives 'put words in his mouth' so he'd say he was aware Americans could die from weapons he sold in order to require a terrorism enhancement that would force a long prison sentence, if not a life term.
Scheindlin gave Bout the mandatory minimum 25-year sentence but said she did so only because it was required.




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Bout was estimated to be worth about $6 billion in March 2008 when he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand. 
U.S. authorities tricked him into leaving Russia for what he thought was a meeting over a business deal to ship what prosecutors described as 'a breathtaking arsenal of weapons - including hundreds of surface-to-air missiles, machine guns and sniper rifles - 10 million rounds of ammunition and five tons of plastic explosives.'
He was taken into custody at a Bangkok luxury hotel after conversations with the Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation_s informants who posed as officials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC.

The group had been classified by Washington as a narco-terrorist group.
He was brought to the U.S. in November 2010.
The 'Merchant of Death' moniker was attached to Bout by a high-ranking minister of Britain_s Foreign Office.

The nickname was included in the U.S. government_s indictment of Bout.