Russia seeks to bring home arms smuggler

Russian authorities say they'll pressure the U.S. government, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, to bring convicted arms smuggler Viktor Bout back home.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by the Russian news agency ITAR-Tass as saying the subject of Bout, sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday, will be raised in talks with Clinton.

Lavrov said during a visit to neighboring Kazakhstan that Russia will not be seeking revenge for Bout's conviction and sentencing. "In any case, we intend to achieve his return to the motherland. In our relations with the United States, we have all the necessary legal instruments for this," he said.

Bout is dubbed the "Merchant of Death" because of alleged arms dealings across the globe. That minimum sentence creates a comfortable ground for Russia and the United States to find a compromise that would allow Bout to be extradited to Russia, a political expert said.

"Bout was a businessman involved in arms trafficking under control of the Russian special services and they will find a way to get back one of their own," said Sergei Markov, vice president of Plekhanov Russian University of Economics. "The U.S. special services understand that they need to resolve this sooner than later before their own spy and arms trafficker is snatched by Russians or perishes in a mysterious accident."

Bout's wife, Alla, characterized the sentence as a small victory. In an interview with pro-Kremlin Voice of Russia radio, she said she expected the Russian government to intervene and change Bout's fate.

Before Thursday's sentencing in Manhattan, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin inserted into the public court file copies of letters she received from Russian authorities.

Bout had been jailed since his arrest four years ago in Thailand after he met U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration operatives posing as agents of a Colombian terrorism group. He was extradited to the United States for trial in 2010.

Prosecutors portrayed Bout as among the world's worst villains. They say he was ready to sell up to $20 million in weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, to shoot down U.S. helicopters.