Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible is a story about gun runner Viktor Bout.
Bout, a Russian citizen capitalized on the collapse of the Soviet Union by purchasing several Soviet-owned cargo aircraft and starting an air cargo business whose business was mainly arms traffic. By setting up a series of shell companies and holding companies and registering his aircraft with nations with "lax" regulations, Bout was able to created a complete logistic network that allowed him to efficiently sell arms around the world. He sold weapons to both sides of a conflict and regularly violated UN weapons embargoes. The U.S., UK, and other nations were unwilling to completely shut him down because these countries as well as the UN also used Bout's network for cargo shipping (weapons and humanitarian aid).
Viktor Bout is the person that Nicholas Cage's character Yuri Orlov in Lord of War was based on.
This book gave me the information I was looking for with regards to how arms dealers are able to work outside of the law. I am now armed with the theory on how to start a gun-running business.
The book is as much a story about Bout as it is about conflicts following the Soviet Union collapse and as a result a must-read for anyone interested in the fall of the Soviet Union.
Bout, a Russian citizen capitalized on the collapse of the Soviet Union by purchasing several Soviet-owned cargo aircraft and starting an air cargo business whose business was mainly arms traffic. By setting up a series of shell companies and holding companies and registering his aircraft with nations with "lax" regulations, Bout was able to created a complete logistic network that allowed him to efficiently sell arms around the world. He sold weapons to both sides of a conflict and regularly violated UN weapons embargoes. The U.S., UK, and other nations were unwilling to completely shut him down because these countries as well as the UN also used Bout's network for cargo shipping (weapons and humanitarian aid).
Viktor Bout is the person that Nicholas Cage's character Yuri Orlov in Lord of War was based on.
This book gave me the information I was looking for with regards to how arms dealers are able to work outside of the law. I am now armed with the theory on how to start a gun-running business.
The book is as much a story about Bout as it is about conflicts following the Soviet Union collapse and as a result a must-read for anyone interested in the fall of the Soviet Union.
