Russians mock America for swapping arms dealer Victor Bout for Brittney Griner trends now

Vladimir Putin's top allies in Russia are mocking America over the recent prisoner swap that saw the US release convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout in exchange for WNBA star Brittney Griner, claiming that Russia got the better end of the deal.

Maria Butina, the pro-Putin MP elected to Russia's Duma after serving a US prison sentence for acting as an unregistered foreign agent, led the charge in taunting the US over Thursday's exchange. 

'The fact that Russia pushed through the exchange of Bout, whom America fundamentally did not want to give away for many years, right now means that, like in The Godfather, we "made them an offer that cannot be refused,"' Butina boasted in Russian on her Telegram channel. 

'This is a position of strength, comrades,' added Butina, who was deported back to Russia in 2019 after serving an 18-month sentence in the US.

On Thursday, the US and Russia announced that Griner, who was sentenced to nine years of hard prison time on cannabis-related charges, had been exchanged for Bout. 

The swap took place in Abu Dhabi, and Russian TV showed Bout in a private jet on the flight to Russia, getting his blood pressure checked, speaking with his family by phone and saying, 'I love you very much.'

Bout's mother, Raisa, thanked President Vladimir Putin and the Foreign Ministry for freeing her son, Tass reported. It added that he would be invited to speak to lawmakers on the Duma's International Affairs committee.

On Channel One Russia, the state-run news outlet widely watched in Russia, an announcer hailed Bout as a 'legendary figure' who had suffered 'persecution' and 'illegal extradition to the United States'.

Online comments from Russian-speakers also tended to celebrate Bout's release, with some hailing him as a 'hero'. 

'Finally. He's been sitting in jail for years. Freedom,' wrote one commenter on YouTube. 

'Finally the family will be reunited. Congratulations for the return of Viktor. I wrote him a letter in America with words of support. I'm very glad this part of history is over,' another wrote. 

'He is a Russian hero' one comment read. 

'This is such a big win for America, but at the same time a huge fail. Trading a figure like Bout for a basketball player…' read a comment on a sports news site.

Other Russian-language comments were skeptical of the deal, and slammed Russia for imprisoning Griner. 

'What shame and embarrassment! They took an innocent person hostage, blamed her for something, the devils, just to trade in for a criminal!' one read on YouTube.

'Happy for Griner. But this creates an unpleasant precedent in the sense that it is already dangerous for any US citizen to visit Russia. They can make up any nonsense to keep them there,' another person wrote. 

Bout is widely known abroad as the 'Merchant of Death' international arms dealer who fueled some of the world's worst conflicts.

The 2005 Nicolas Cage movie 'Lord of War' was loosely based on Bout, a former Soviet air force officer who gained fame supposedly by supplying weapons for civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa. 

His clients were said to include Liberia's Charles Taylor, longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and both sides in Angola's civil war.