Give me back my artworks, says 'Merchant of Death' freed by US prisoner swap

Viktor Bout, the Russian arms dealer, has demanded the return of his artwork and documents produced during his time in a high-security US prison.

A cat bound in chains, a portrait of himself behind bars and a pair of kissing monkeys are included in the series of paintings and drawings.

"I hope that all his documents and drawings will be handed over to the Russian embassy soon," his wife, Alla Bout, said.

Bout was traded in a prisoner swap for Brittney Griner, the US basketball star, on Thursday.

He was serving a sentence at a federal prison in Illinois following his arrest in 2008 for attempting to sell weapons to Colombian rebels.

Bout said he felt terrible after his long prisoner swap journey and had not slept for three days.

"Viktor Anatolyevich feels terrible, he is really exhausted," Mrs Bout said.

She expressed gratitude for how the Americans treated her husband during the prisoner exchange.

"He said he was grateful to the American side for feeding him. He said he hasn't eaten as much for the last 12 years. He was treated well, with respect, he wasn't shackled or in handcuffs."

The exchange was the most high-profile prisoner swap between the US and Russia for years.

Griner's penal colony a 'friendly concentration camp'

Griner was facing a nine-year prison sentence for drug charges and had been imprisoned for nearly 10 months.

New footage released by Russian state TV gave an inside look into her life at a penal colony described as “a friendly concentration camp”.

The video offers a glimpse of Griner's daily routine of making her bed and working and chatting with other inmates before her release on Thursday.

In the footage, she could also be seen with short hair in a white headwrap doing work in what appears to be a factory, as well as the moment she signed her papers to be released.

The bed she slept in was very short and narrow and fitted close to those of other prisoners. A label including a photograph of Ms Griner and her name was taped to the end.

Griner landed back in the US on Friday.

Joe Biden announced her release in a brief statement from the Roosevelt Room of the White House, alongside Cherelle Griner, the basketball player’s wife on Thursday.

Her first stop after touching down was the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Russian state media on Friday lauded Vladimir Putin for "winning" the exchange and returning Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death”, to the country.

"It is a capitulation by America," Maria Butina, a lawmaker in the lower house of the Russian parliament told state television on the tarmac of Moscow's Vnukovo airport just as Bout landed.

"It shows that Russia doesn't abandon its own while America has shown its defeat," Butina said beside Bout's wife and mother, who hugged him as he stepped back on to Russian soil. "Russia did not forget him."

There have been questions as to why the exchange did not include Paul Whelan, a former US Marine serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian penal colony on espionage charges.

Mr Whelan, who holds American, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in jail after being convicted of spying.

Russia said he was caught with classified information in a Moscow hotel room where agents from the Federal Security Service detained him on Dec 28, 2018. He denies that he committed espionage.