Is this a scenario where Putin played Biden like a fiddle? Or, was Biden actually a participant in shaping a narrative that allowed him to make a payment on a debt he owes to Russia?

How woke of our resident and his supporters

I think there is more to this story.

Griner is Pfff.

Viktor on the other hand:

According to NYP:

Viktor Bout, an outlaw Russian arms dealer known as “The Merchant of Death,” .

Allegecly.

Bout has been in US custody since 2008, when a secretive sting operation lead by the Drug Enforcement Administration captured him in Thailand.

That there has a few alarm bells ringing. The word here, again, is 'allegedly'. Given the secrecy involved, I have a few doubts. So he was in Thailand. Big deal - that does not indict him. Oh he was a well-spoken Russian - oh very suspicious. Undercover stings are notorious for cooking up 'evidence'.

Bout’s larger-than-life reputation makes it hard to separate fact from fiction

You are telling me?

when it comes to the arms trafficker’s resume. Much of his early life is unknown, but he’s believed to have been born in 1967 in then-Soviet Tajikistan. Bout was trained as a linguist at a Moscow military institute before serving with the Red Army as a translator in Angola.

Not much of an arms dealing resume, if you ask me, more like a linguist and a military man. A good reason to arrest him I am sure. (sarcasm)

Also, the link to his having allegedly stolen weapons and selling them god-knows-where is dead. Remember, they accused Surovikin of arms-dealing, and it turned out he gave a handgun to a friend. So no proof, as of yet, in the GWP article. Not criticizing the Hofts, mind you, it may have been taken down.