Of
Silke Bigalke, Moscow
Viktor But is free – and appropriately it is the Russian domestic secret service FSB, which publishes the first video images of the release: They probably show the convicted arms dealer at Abu Dhabi airport, where the prisoner exchange was to take place. Men in black suits and with pixelated faces come towards the freedman, shake his hand vigorously, one hugs Wiktor But. The return of the “dealer of death,” as one of his nicknames goes, is a major success for the Kremlin. But later sits on the cream-colored sofa of a jet, presumably heading straight for Russia. “It’s all right!” he says into a cell phone, his mother is on it. He will tell her the rest when they see each other.