comment: >
  
  She would leave the arena wearing his mustache as a cute little bow tie.
context: During an interview last month with convicted Russian agent Maria Butina for the state media outlet RT, Bout proclaimed his wholehearted support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said he would certainly sign up as a volunteer, if he had the opportunity and necessary skills.
  During his Wednesday interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda Radio, Bout was a lot more cautious, probably realizing that no special skills are required to be dispatched to the frontlines.
  
  "Man, I'd totally sign up! If only I could..."
  "Good news, you can!"
  "I mean, I would, but I lack the skills -"
  "Worry not! We'll take literally anyone!"
  "...I, uh, just need to check on something first. In, uh...somewhere else." >
  
  
  “Sooner or later, the deep America will stand up, take power into its hands and install a normal president like Trump, who will say: “Why wouldn’t we want to get along with Russia?” Karpitskaya quietly replied: “We’ll be waiting.”
  
  Chilling. >
  
  What? Trump a, "Normal President"? 
  We're better off with an actual military veteran in office, not some tender foot. >
  
  he looks like he can catch bullets as well as anyone >
  
  If you can dodge a bullet, you can dodge a ball. >
  
  And this is why Russia never had an Olympic gold medal winning dodgeball team. >
  
  Wow so delusional that guy might be drunk >
  
  Well, Bout's history isn't actually fighting himself.  Its arms and other weapons related dealings and conspiracy which would possibly result in thousands of deaths. Hence, "The Merchant of Death."  Doesn't mean he's pulling the trigger or personally blowing people up
  edit: typo >
  
  But after years in jail, his contacts are no longer as useful, he likely would be more useful to Russia on the front lines. >
  
  That was the rationale for swapping him for Griner, but he I bet he still has contacts, and he still has status.  Wouldn't be hard with his background to connect >
  
  What weapons is he trading?  Russia has little to spare.  His time has come and gone, he's of very little use other than propaganda in Russia. >
  
  He's probably not allowed to become there's a window on the 12th floor he has a meeting with >
  
  Griner wouldn't. >
  
  They should have had them fight for the right to be free. My money's on Griner. >
  
  She would leave the arena wearing his mustache as a cute little bow tie. >
  
  
  During an interview last month with convicted Russian agent Maria Butina for the state media outlet RT, Bout proclaimed his wholehearted support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said he would certainly sign up as a volunteer, if he had the opportunity and necessary skills.
  During his Wednesday interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda Radio, Bout was a lot more cautious, probably realizing that no special skills are required to be dispatched to the frontlines.
  
  "Man, I'd totally sign up! If only I could..."
  "Good news, you can!"
  "I mean, I would, but I lack the skills -"
  "Worry not! We'll take literally anyone!"
  "...I, uh, just need to check on something first. In, uh...somewhere else." >
  
  The "hold me back" toughguy. >
  
  Russian culture in a nutshell—Act hard as nails, until you actually have to fight someone on equal footing… then cry and play victim. >
  
  Dude I'm an American and spent years living in Russia and practiced martial arts there for a long time. Russians go hard, hit hard and don't really know chill when it comes to fighting. Also the worst bar brawls I have ever seen were in Russia.... so.... agree to disagree. >
  
  Barfights =/= strategic warfare.
  Soviet invasion of Afghanistan disagrees with you >
  
  Interestingly enough, The Soviet Union was led by Leonid Brezhnev, a Ukrainian, when that invasion started. 
  The USSR was led by non-Russians for 43 of it's 69 years of existence. >
  
  By and large though they were the same country.  Georgians (Stalin) and Ukrainians weren't considered all that different, they had the same governments, educational systems, and state religion after all. While the USSR was de facto ruled by Russia, on paper the Russian SFSR was just another member state of the USSR. 
  A lot of these post Soviet countries we see now didn't have much in the way of a national identity before the USSR broke up. This caused a sizable portion (if not the majority) of people to see themselves as Soviet citizens first, then whatever ethnicity they were second. >
  
  Georgians are an entirely different language family and cultural group from Ukrainians and Russians. The only thing they had in common was the government (not of their choosing) which instilled that education, those local governments, and religion. >
  
  Yeah there are literally children's books in the soviet 
  Union where they tell you about the different races within the state. From Russian to Ukrainian, Tatars, Kazakhs, Georgian, Armenian, [.. 20 more] to Jews. 
  And there was a big russification on going, a lot discriminations and incamping. Actually not THAT different to Germany and Italy in their 30ies. >
  
  Wow so delusional that guy might be drunk >
  
  Uh, he's absolutely not delusional, he knows exactly what he's doing. He's probably never gonna be sent to the front lines unless he manages to publicly piss off Putty, so he's comfortable making these vague claims about the Evil West and the Inevitable Victory Of The Motherland™ while conveniently avoiding signing up like he said he would.
  He's not called the "Merchant of Death" for nothing. The man's probably one of the most opportunistic cowards to have ever walked the Earth. >
  
  ‘Opportunistic coward’ is a perfect description. >
  
  To be fair it is difficult to act coward without an opportunity to do so >
  
  
  “Sooner or later, the deep America will stand up, take power into its hands and install a normal president like Trump, who will say: “Why wouldn’t we want to get along with Russia?” Karpitskaya quietly replied: “We’ll be waiting.”
  
  Chilling. >
  
  That struck me as well. This war is our war, even if I don’t want to escalate. >
  
  LOL. No it's not. Just because some dude says some words, doesn't mean America is under threat. >
  
  You think Russia isn't a threat to US democracy? >
  
  there are many threats to American democracy. Russia, Murdoch, Religion. America is getting fucked from from the inside mainly. >
  
  he looks like he can catch bullets as well as anyone >
  
  If you can dodge a bullet, you can dodge a ball. >
  
  And this is why Russia never had an Olympic gold medal winning dodgeball team. >
  
  They practise with bullets? >
  
  Yeah. They still don't have a whole team, the players keep dying by holes.
  There is this one guy that is nigh unhittable tho, but you need more than one for a team. >
  
  Well, Bout's history isn't actually fighting himself.  Its arms and other weapons related dealings and conspiracy which would possibly result in thousands of deaths. Hence, "The Merchant of Death."  Doesn't mean he's pulling the trigger or personally blowing people up
  edit: typo >
  
  But after years in jail, his contacts are no longer as useful, he likely would be more useful to Russia on the front lines. >
  
  Nah bro he's the merchant of death, there was a movie based on him, so you know he's legit. I'm sure the arms trafficking industry is very sentimental and eager to invite him back in to their inner circles especially after spending so long under US control, he totally won't be suspected of being a compromised asset we can trust him bro. He'll shit out so many weapons for the Russian war effort bro you don't even know man. He'll be so good at getting weapons from other people into Russia based on his years of outdated experience literally doing the exact opposite bro. The US totally fucked up bro now Russia's got Ukraine in the bag, please bro believe the hype bro propaganda is all I've got left bro.
  -Putin, and every other idiot spamming that line of thinking when the deal first happened >
  
  ok but Lord of War is actually such a good movie >
  
  They aren’t going to send him to the frontlines unless he says the wrong thing. And he understands this. 
  He’s a trophy for Putin since he believes he pulled one over on the US by getting a criminal for a WNBA player. He’s more valuable as a propaganda piece. Same reason you don’t see Snowden with a broken rifle and a tampon plugging his wound, charging into Ukrainian fire. >
  
  I forgot they had Snowden until this exact moment
  Wonder how he's doing >
  
  He posts on Twitter. He recently became a permanent Russian citizen, has a kid, his wife lives with him there. He does consulting and virtual appearances to make a living for the most part.
  All things considered, he isn’t in a U.S. prison or in Ukraine fighting, so I’d say he’s pretty well by those standards. >
  
  Thank you! Agreed he is doing well, comparatively, if what you say is correct. I'm glad his wife and kid are okay as well >
  
  Merchant of cowardice >
  
  "probably realizing that no special skills are required to be dispatched to the frontlines."
  It took him until now to make this conclusion?? Are we sure he's not mentally handicapped or something??
  Literal untrained civilians were told to walk into the meat grinder equipped with tampons that they had to procure themselves for first aid kits.. my parrot would know better than to make such statements in Russia.. >
  
  The only skill you require is *how to die. luckily, every soldier qualifies. free lifetime subscription to death likely propaganda newsletter.
  ​
  join up, see ukraine and die there. >
  
  It would be nice if he could experience himself the results of his dirty work. >
  
  
  Bout delivered an unexpectedly cheerful prediction as to the future of Russia’s relations with the United States: “Sooner or later, the deep America will stand up, take power into its hands and install a normal president like Trump, who will say: “Why wouldn’t we want to get along with Russia?” Karpitskaya quietly replied: “We’ll be waiting.”
  
  Trump was a "normal" president? >
  
  “Normal” as in “most similar to Putin” which has been the normal there for some time now. >
  
  
  The convicted arms dealer complained about harsh conditions and inhumane treatment in American prisons, directly contrasted by his own tales of successfully disseminating Russian disinformation to his U.S. prison guards and listening to Soviet songs in his prison cell. Bout proudly claimed: “Those Americans with whom I was imprisoned and even the prison guards absolutely do not trust their own media, like CNN. What’s interesting is that CNN is on the verge of bankruptcy. They’re being watched only in prisons, airports and nursing homes.”
  Bout delivered an unexpectedly cheerful prediction as to the future of Russia’s relations with the United States: “Sooner or later, the deep America will stand up, take power into its hands and install a normal president like Trump, who will say: “Why wouldn’t we want to get along with Russia?” Karpitskaya quietly replied: “We’ll be waiting.”
  
  The stength of their ties to U.S. conservarive media and Republican politicians convinces them that the American public must secretly be on their side as well. I believe they're mistaken. >
  
  “Most of our population rose up and is supporting this operation... Russia woke up! 
  Is he calling Russia Woke? Does Ron DeSantis know about this? >
  
  Swap him for Iranian drones, art of the deal merchant o death. >
  
  He is complaining about prison food in USA, have he tried Russian prison food? >
  
  Can't wait for this sequel with Nic Cage! >
  
  Crack smokin talker… >
  
  He thought since they traded a basketball player for him that Russia was actually competent. >
  
  One arguement given for why Russia with swap him for griner is that that swap would cause most instability and drama on US side. If US doesn't accept the swap then there will people who will get upset and if US does accept the swap then other group will get upset. Basically were expendable pawns for putin and the goal was maximum instability on US side. >
  
  Fortunately, they seriously overestimated our attention span. >
  
  Right?  This was a topic for at most a week and now everyone has moved on and nobody cares anymore. >
  
  He's probably not allowed to become there's a window on the 12th floor he has a meeting with >
  
  It really sucks to see so much tabloid bullshit on here. >
  
  I'm surprised he's not dead yet >
  
  Why did I think the headline meant it was like a televised fight, like Jake Paul fighting for publicity and for $$ in a reality event. >
  
  Are people surprised gun runners don't have an appetite for the frontlines? >
  
  Griner wouldn't. >
  
  They should have had them fight for the right to be free. My money's on Griner. >
  
  She would leave the arena wearing his mustache as a cute little bow tie. >
  
  Boy, he sure is causing a lot of chaos. Guess everyone who told me how dangerous he was was right… >
  
  This quote: "What’s interesting is that CNN is on the verge of bankruptcy. They’re being watched only in prisons, airports and nursing homes"
  A bit unnerving how accurate he is. I guess one of the guards told him; not like he was flying commercial during his incarceration. >
  
  i thought fox had the nursing home demographic? >
  
  I’m sure he’s not got much left in terms of business. He can work at a gay bar. >
  
  I did hear there was an available opening at the Blue oyster bar... >
  
  He never was going to be sent to the fight. Putin has tried to free him for years, long before the war even started. 
  The US just bowed to public pressure and traded that in for some wnba player lol >
  
  They traded an asset who was quickly losing value to save an American citizen from years of torture. >
  
  They traded an asset that had significant value to Putin, for one wnba player who did not have any value in a geopolitical sense.
  It wasnt until the public outrage and the "racism / sexism" crowd got going, that the WH even started talking about a trade.
  But you can spin it whichever way you want, you cant genuinely arrive at the conclusion that these two people carry the same geopolitical value. >
  
  They don't. He was an asset who was quickly losing value. She was an American citizen.
  You guys are so desperate to condemn it. Your God Emperor Trump would have let him go as soon his God Emperor Putin demanded it. >
  
  
  He was an asset who was quickly losing value.
  
  Thats literally your personal conjecture.
  Had he lost value, Putin wouldnt have spent year trying to get him back. For Putin it was a win-win because he could humiliate the US in the process.
  
  Your God Emperor Trump
  
  Not only am i not american, i am guaranteedly more liberal than you. Doesnt change the fact that i see this as a pretty bad trade for the US, that was mostly driven by said public outrage. Geopolitcally, the US did not gain anything and rather lost quite a bit.
  
  he was an American citizen.
  
  Luckily, if anything else fail thats the spin that will almost work for americas. Reliable, old faithful. >
  
  "Quickly losing value"
  As in. Not worthless yet.
  Do you think they'd be able to trade him three weeks before his sentence is up, when she had spent the entire time being tortured?
  "Omg it's a political move" yeah no shit. They are politicians. They do political moves. >
  
  I just still can’t get over the fact that the us traded a warmongering arms dealer for a basketball player. Should have let them both rot. >
  
  I mean, she is a black female lesbian, they kinda hit the jackpot for public opinion >
  
  Can someone elaborate on this "merchant of death"? He looks a little frail to be anything of concern. >
  
  After the fall of the Soviet Union, he sold surplus guns and weapons to conflict nations. Primarily Africa. He didn't care who bought his weapons or what were to be done with them. As a result he armed brutal dictator that killed many people. There is a movie starring Nicholas Cage called, "Lord of War" that is based on the life of this evil man. >
  
  Ok thank you >
  
  
  During an interview last month with convicted Russian agent Maria Butina for the state media outlet RT, Bout proclaimed his wholehearted support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and said he would certainly sign up as a volunteer, if he had the opportunity and necessary skills.
  During his Wednesday interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda Radio, Bout was a lot more cautious, probably realizing that no special skills are required to be dispatched to the frontlines.
  
  "Man, I'd totally sign up! If only I could..."
  "Good news, you can!"
  "I mean, I would, but I lack the skills -"
  "Worry not! We'll take literally anyone!"
  "...I, uh, just need to check on something first. In, uh...somewhere else." >
  
  The "hold me back" toughguy. >
  
  Russian culture in a nutshell—Act hard as nails, until you actually have to fight someone on equal footing… then cry and play victim. >
  
  Dude I'm an American and spent years living in Russia and practiced martial arts there for a long time. Russians go hard, hit hard and don't really know chill when it comes to fighting. Also the worst bar brawls I have ever seen were in Russia.... so.... agree to disagree. >
  
  Barfights =/= strategic warfare.
  Soviet invasion of Afghanistan disagrees with you >
  
  Interestingly enough, The Soviet Union was led by Leonid Brezhnev, a Ukrainian, when that invasion started. 
  The USSR was led by non-Russians for 43 of it's 69 years of existence. >
  
  By and large though they were the same country.  Georgians (Stalin) and Ukrainians weren't considered all that different, they had the same governments, educational systems, and state religion after all. While the USSR was de facto ruled by Russia, on paper the Russian SFSR was just another member state of the USSR. 
  A lot of these post Soviet countries we see now didn't have much in the way of a national identity before the USSR broke up. This caused a sizable portion (if not the majority) of people to see themselves as Soviet citizens first, then whatever ethnicity they were second. >
  
  Georgians are an entirely different language family and cultural group from Ukrainians and Russians. The only thing they had in common was the government (not of their choosing) which instilled that education, those local governments, and religion. >
  
  Yeah there are literally children's books in the soviet 
  Union where they tell you about the different races within the state. From Russian to Ukrainian, Tatars, Kazakhs, Georgian, Armenian, [.. 20 more] to Jews. 
  And there was a big russification on going, a lot discriminations and incamping. Actually not THAT different to Germany and Italy in their 30ies. >
  
  Wow so delusional that guy might be drunk >
  
  Uh, he's absolutely not delusional, he knows exactly what he's doing. He's probably never gonna be sent to the front lines unless he manages to publicly piss off Putty, so he's comfortable making these vague claims about the Evil West and the Inevitable Victory Of The Motherland™ while conveniently avoiding signing up like he said he would.
  He's not called the "Merchant of Death" for nothing. The man's probably one of the most opportunistic cowards to have ever walked the Earth. >
  
  ‘Opportunistic coward’ is a perfect description. >
  
  To be fair it is difficult to act coward without an opportunity to do so >
  
  
  “Sooner or later, the deep America will stand up, take power into its hands and install a normal president like Trump, who will say: “Why wouldn’t we want to get along with Russia?” Karpitskaya quietly replied: “We’ll be waiting.”
  
  Chilling. >
  
  That struck me as well. This war is our war, even if I don’t want to escalate. >
  
  LOL. No it's not. Just because some dude says some words, doesn't mean America is under threat. >
  
  You think Russia isn't a threat to US democracy? >
  
  there are many threats to American democracy. Russia, Murdoch, Religion. America is getting fucked from from the inside mainly. >
  
  he looks like he can catch bullets as well as anyone >
  
  If you can dodge a bullet, you can dodge a ball. >
  
  And this is why Russia never had an Olympic gold medal winning dodgeball team. >
  
  They practise with bullets? >
  
  Yeah. They still don't have a whole team, the players keep dying by holes.
  There is this one guy that is nigh unhittable tho, but you need more than one for a team. >
  
  Well, Bout's history isn't actually fighting himself.  Its arms and other weapons related dealings and conspiracy which would possibly result in thousands of deaths. Hence, "The Merchant of Death."  Doesn't mean he's pulling the trigger or personally blowing people up
  edit: typo >
  
  But after years in jail, his contacts are no longer as useful, he likely would be more useful to Russia on the front lines. >
  
  Nah bro he's the merchant of death, there was a movie based on him, so you know he's legit. I'm sure the arms trafficking industry is very sentimental and eager to invite him back in to their inner circles especially after spending so long under US control, he totally won't be suspected of being a compromised asset we can trust him bro. He'll shit out so many weapons for the Russian war effort bro you don't even know man. He'll be so good at getting weapons from other people into Russia based on his years of outdated experience literally doing the exact opposite bro. The US totally fucked up bro now Russia's got Ukraine in the bag, please bro believe the hype bro propaganda is all I've got left bro.
  -Putin, and every other idiot spamming that line of thinking when the deal first happened >
  
  ok but Lord of War is actually such a good movie >
  
  They aren’t going to send him to the frontlines unless he says the wrong thing. And he understands this. 
  He’s a trophy for Putin since he believes he pulled one over on the US by getting a criminal for a WNBA player. He’s more valuable as a propaganda piece. Same reason you don’t see Snowden with a broken rifle and a tampon plugging his wound, charging into Ukrainian fire. >
  
  I forgot they had Snowden until this exact moment
  Wonder how he's doing >
  
  He posts on Twitter. He recently became a permanent Russian citizen, has a kid, his wife lives with him there. He does consulting and virtual appearances to make a living for the most part.
  All things considered, he isn’t in a U.S. prison or in Ukraine fighting, so I’d say he’s pretty well by those standards. >
  
  Thank you! Agreed he is doing well, comparatively, if what you say is correct. I'm glad his wife and kid are okay as well >
  
  Merchant of cowardice >
  
  "probably realizing that no special skills are required to be dispatched to the frontlines."
  It took him until now to make this conclusion?? Are we sure he's not mentally handicapped or something??
  Literal untrained civilians were told to walk into the meat grinder equipped with tampons that they had to procure themselves for first aid kits.. my parrot would know better than to make such statements in Russia.. >
  
  The only skill you require is *how to die. luckily, every soldier qualifies. free lifetime subscription to death likely propaganda newsletter.
  ​
  join up, see ukraine and die there. >
  
  It would be nice if he could experience himself the results of his dirty work. >
  
  
  Bout delivered an unexpectedly cheerful prediction as to the future of Russia’s relations with the United States: “Sooner or later, the deep America will stand up, take power into its hands and install a normal president like Trump, who will say: “Why wouldn’t we want to get along with Russia?” Karpitskaya quietly replied: “We’ll be waiting.”
  
  Trump was a "normal" president? >
  
  “Normal” as in “most similar to Putin” which has been the normal there for some time now. >
  
  
  The convicted arms dealer complained about harsh conditions and inhumane treatment in American prisons, directly contrasted by his own tales of successfully disseminating Russian disinformation to his U.S. prison guards and listening to Soviet songs in his prison cell. Bout proudly claimed: “Those Americans with whom I was imprisoned and even the prison guards absolutely do not trust their own media, like CNN. What’s interesting is that CNN is on the verge of bankruptcy. They’re being watched only in prisons, airports and nursing homes.”
  Bout delivered an unexpectedly cheerful prediction as to the future of Russia’s relations with the United States: “Sooner or later, the deep America will stand up, take power into its hands and install a normal president like Trump, who will say: “Why wouldn’t we want to get along with Russia?” Karpitskaya quietly replied: “We’ll be waiting.”
  
  The stength of their ties to U.S. conservarive media and Republican politicians convinces them that the American public must secretly be on their side as well. I believe they're mistaken. >
  
  “Most of our population rose up and is supporting this operation... Russia woke up! 
  Is he calling Russia Woke? Does Ron DeSantis know about this? >
  
  Swap him for Iranian drones, art of the deal merchant o death. >
  
  He is complaining about prison food in USA, have he tried Russian prison food? >
  
  Can't wait for this sequel with Nic Cage! >
  
  Crack smokin talker… >
  
  He thought since they traded a basketball player for him that Russia was actually competent. >
  
  One arguement given for why Russia with swap him for griner is that that swap would cause most instability and drama on US side. If US doesn't accept the swap then there will people who will get upset and if US does accept the swap then other group will get upset. Basically were expendable pawns for putin and the goal was maximum instability on US side. >
  
  Fortunately, they seriously overestimated our attention span. >
  
  Right?  This was a topic for at most a week and now everyone has moved on and nobody cares anymore. >
  
  He's probably not allowed to become there's a window on the 12th floor he has a meeting with >
  
  It really sucks to see so much tabloid bullshit on here. >
  
  I'm surprised he's not dead yet >
  
  Why did I think the headline meant it was like a televised fight, like Jake Paul fighting for publicity and for $$ in a reality event. >
  
  Are people surprised gun runners don't have an appetite for the frontlines? >
  
  Griner wouldn't. >
  
  They should have had them fight for the right to be free. My money's on Griner.