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Viktor Bout says he is dazzled by changes in Moscow over long years of US captivity

On December 8, Viktor Bout returned to Russia as a result of an agreement with the US to exchange him for American basketball player Brittney Griner

MOSCOW, December 12./TASS/. Viktor Bout, who last week returned home from US captivity, has said it is stunning to see how Moscow has changed while he was serving his prison term in the US.

"You know, it is difficult to express in words, the city is unrecognizable. It's so striking: the new highways, especially as we are in December. I remember that back then everything was splashed with some kind of sticky liquid and it was impossible to see anything, now it's all so clean, there was even snowfall. Just an incredible emotion, an incredible experience," Bout told the Big Game talk show on Channel One on Monday.

On December 8, Viktor Bout returned to Russia as a result of an agreement with the US to exchange him for American basketball player Brittney Griner, found guilty in Russia of drug smuggling.

Viktor Bout was detained in Thailand’s capital of Bangkok in 2008 under a warrant issued by a local court at the behest of the US. He was charged with illegally supplying weapons to a rebel group known as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the US. Bout was extradited to the United States two years later. In April 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years in jail and slapped with a $15-million fine.

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