Word: bouting
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...Bout was both a product of the post-Cold War era and a master of its chaos. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the industrious 25-year-old saw an opportunity to turn dozens of military cargo planes that were sitting unused on military runways into a multimillion-dollar transport business...
...Viktor Bout may have started to believe the hype. While negotiating his most recent arms deal, Bout had his associate give the potential buyers a copy of a recent magazine article about him titled "The Merchant of Death" - just so they'd know who they were dealing with. After almost two decades of outfoxing authorities while supplying weapons to the most deadly conflicts around the globe, the former Soviet Air Force pilot let his guard down just as a complex web of international police agencies were closing in on him. The potential buyers said they represented the leftist Colombian rebel...
Amid one of his first big shipments - sending crates of fresh-cut South African gladiolas into the United Arab Emirates - Bout realized it was wasteful flying into Africa with empty planes. According to Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible, a book on Bout written by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun last year, Bout began to fill his Africa-bound aircraft with stockpiles of Soviet weapons to sell to some of Africa's most notorious regimes and rebel groups. As his business expanded, Bout found himself selling weapons on both sides of the conflicts...
...book. And a screenplay. He gave radio interviews in Moscow. Nevertheless, in the 1990s, there were few known photographs of him. In 2003, however, he agreed to an interview with the New York Times Magazine and stood for a portrait dressed in a nappy tan suit. In the interview, Bout tried to paint himself as a hard-working entrepreneur, vegetarian and nature lover who just happened to spend a lot of time flying into African conflict zones...
...While a major decision is always good news, this bout gave more reason than usual for celebration, as it marked the freshman’s first action since an injury in Dec. Clearly Jantzen was ready for his return...