MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. Viktor Bout has said after returning to Russia that he didn’t experience any Russophobia in the US prison and many inmates liked Russia.
"In that prison, as it’s located in the traditionally red belt of the US, the one-storied America, as they used to say in Russia, I didn’t encounter any Russophobia," he said in an interview with State Duma deputy Maria Butina, which was posted to the Telegram channel of RT.
Bout said Russophobia was shown by neither prison employees nor inmates. He said the inmates were "largely favorably disposed toward Russia."
The Russian Foreign Ministry on December 8 said Bout was brought back to Russia as a result of an agreement to exchange him for US basketball player Brittney Griner. Viktor Bout was detained in Thailand’s capital Bangkok in 2008 under a warrant issued by a local court at the US request. He was charged with illegal supplies of weapons to the rebel group called 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 a fine of $15 million.