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"He
really wants to return to his homeland, he yearns for his
family, for his mother," Antonov said in a short video posted by
the Russian embassy on the Telegram messaging app.
Variously dubbed "the merchant of death" and "the sanctions
buster" for his ability to get around arms embargoes, Bout, 55,
is serving a 25 year-prison sentence..
Washington has offered to exchange Bout for Brittney Griner, the
U.S. basketball star jailed for nine years in Russia on drugs
charges and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Paul Whelan. On Wednesday,
the U.S. State Department said the United States had consular
access to Griner since early August.
Russia's RIA state news agency reported that Antonov said that
talks of a possible exchange of prisoners with the United States
is going on "between specially trained people and specially
trained services," bypassing the embassy.
Antonov, who spent an uninterrupted 1.5 hours with Bout, also
said that Bout was ill some time ago, but not with the
coronavirus and that all necessary medical assistance had been
provided to him, RIA reported.
"He has no complaints. He really lacks normal communication. He
said that he even began to forget some Russian words a bit,
because there is no one to talk to," RIA cited Antonov as
saying.
(Reporting in Melbourne by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Michael
Perry)
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