Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who has been released by the United States, expressed his support on Saturday for Russian President Vladimir Putin and "the Russian invasion of Ukraine".
The United States released Butt in exchange for Moscow's release of American basketball player Brittney Grainer.
In an interview with Russia's RT channel, Bot confirmed that he had "always" kept a picture of Putin in his cell while he was imprisoned in the United States, where he was sentenced to 25 years in prison after his arrest in Thailand in 2008.
"I am proud to be Russian, and our president is Putin," he said.
The 55-year-old former Soviet army officer stressed that he "fully" supported Russia's offensive in Ukraine.
He added, "If I have the opportunity and the necessary skills, I will volunteer" to fight in Ukraine, indicating that he "does not understand" that Moscow has not launched its offensive since 2014.
He repeated the identification of himself as a businessman who was working legally, considering that he used an "example" to other Russians in order to accept agreements with Washington, which he refused to do.
illogical
Victor Bout denied selling weapons to the Taliban;
It was reported by American newspapers.
He said, "The Taliban set a price for killing me, so how can it be said that I cooperated with them? This is illogical."
He accused Western countries of encouraging "the suicide of civilization with drugs and the LGBTQ community," referring to homosexuals.
According to a United Nations report, Bout was born in 1967 in Dushanbe, capital of the former Soviet Republic of Tajikistan, and attended the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow before joining the Air Force.
He was accused of being able, since 1991 and the fall of the Soviet Union, to obtain, at a low price, a quantity of weapons from military bases in the former Soviet Union, and to resell them in several conflict zones.
His possible relationship with Russian intelligence remains ambiguous.