A Charmer Who Drives a Hard Bargain

Victor Bout is fluent in five languages and is described by intimates as a tough but charming man and a hard bargainer.

Bout’s business dealings have enabled him to buy expensive cars and residences in Moscow, on the Belgian coast and in South Africa and the emirate of Sharjah.

He has left several countries one step ahead of official inquiries into his businesses and has been accused by United Nations and U.S. officials of supplying weapons to regimes around the world.

After the 1990 collapse of the Soviet Union, Bout began leasing and buying old Soviet planes.

Bout has worked both for governments and for the forces that seek to overthrow them, including Afghanistan’s Taliban regime and the opposition Northern Alliance. According to U.S. officials, he even picked up six freed hostages from the Philippines for Libya’s Col. Moammar Kadafi.

Although Belgian officials issued a warrant for his arrest in February, Bout was last seen in Moscow.