Viktor Bout: Russia's released arms dealer joins ultranationalist party

Image source, ReutersImage caption, Russian state TV showed images of Viktor Bout being reunited with his family in Moscow last week

Russia's arms dealer Viktor Bout – nicknamed the "merchant of death" – has joined the pro-Kremlin ultranationalist LDPR party, following his release in a high-profile US prisoner swap.

In a video posted online, LDPR leader Leonid Slutsky thanked Bout, 55, for becoming a member of "the best political party in today's Russia".

After an elaborate US sting, Bout was sentenced to 25 years in jail in 2011.

Last week, he was exchanged for US basketball star Brittney Griner, 32.

Griner, 32, was arrested at a Moscow airport in February for possessing cannabis oil and last month she was sent to a penal colony.

Griner's agent, Lindsay Kagawa Colas, told ESPN that on Sunday, she picked up a basketball for the first time in almost 10 months, starting her light workout with a dunk.

The agent added that it did not necessarily mean that the athlete – who is currently in the city of San Antonio – would resume her sporting career at the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).

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In the LDPR video published on Monday, Bout is seen standing on stage together with Mr Slutsky and other leading party members.

Mr Slutsky said that Bout had spent "long years" in prison, but "today he is with us".

"We will return all those who are in trouble outside our motherland," he vowed.

Meanwhile, Bout said that for the time being he was not planning to run in any elections, Russia's Ria Novosti news agency reports.

The LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) was founded in the early 1990s by the late Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who gained notoriety for his outrageous comments – including repeated demands for Moscow to use nuclear weapons – and his eccentric behaviour.

A serious contender for power during the first years in the post-Soviet Russia, the party is now seen by many as loyal to the Kremlin on key issues, such as the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

It is not the first time the LDPR has recruited high-profile figures at the centre of big international scandals.

In 2007, Russian security agent Andrei Lugovoi – wanted in the UK on suspicion of poisoning former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko the year before – also joined the LDPR after fleeing London. He is now a member of the State Duma – the lower chamber of Russia's parliament.