MOSCOW, December 14. /TASS/. Viktor Bout, a Russian citizen, who was serving out a prison sentence in the United States on trumped up arms trafficking charges, has said that his first lawyer in the US, trial attorney Sabrina Schroff, openly works for the US government and had no intention of defending him, her prime aim being to persuade him to agree to a plea bargain. Bout has advised everyone to steer clear of her services.

"I definitely advise everyone not to get involved with her, because she absolutely openly works for the [US] government and will not protect any interests [of her clients], especially us Russians. Her task is to get you to cooperate, to agree to a plea bargain," Bout said on Russia’s TV Channel One on Wednesday.

On December 8, Bout returned to Russia as a result of a deal with the US to swap him for American basketball player Brittney Griner, who was apprehended in Russia for drug smuggling in February 2022. Bout was arrested in Thailand’s capital of Bangkok in 2008 following a sting by US federal agents. He was charged with conspiracy to deliver weapons to a group regarded as a terrorist organization by the United States. In 2010, Bout was extradited to the United States. In April 2012, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison and fined $15 million.