president when americans linger in captivity for months or four years. joining us now msnbc international affairs analyst and former ambassador to russia michael mcfaul. ambassador, thank you for being with us avalon of questions for you but first i want to talk about viktor bout, can you explain why this exchange, why bout himself was so personal for putin? well victor bout was an arms control deal around the world, getting arms to lots of bad characters, lots of back governments, lots of bad movements around the world, if you look at his biography on his wikipedia page you can see that he studied at institutions in the soviet union were typically kgb agents also studied. so he is close to that world, that world of vladimir putin remember, putin was a kgb agent himself, and i can tell you from personal experience when i was the ambassador to russia, that the russian government mr. putin s government, has been
presidents have historically paid to win freedom for american citizens or face the consequences. they can cut a sweetheart deal to win freedom for their own nationals convicted of criminal activity or espionage if they abduct americans. the public inevitably blames a president when americans linger in captivity for months or four years. joining us now msnbc international affairs analyst and former ambassador to russia michael mcfaul. ambassador, thank you for being with us avalon of questions for you but first i want to talk about viktor bout, can you explain why this exchange, why bout himself was so personal for putin? well victor bout was an arms control deal around the world, getting arms to lots of bad characters, lots of back governments, lots of bad movements around the world, if you look at his biography on his wikipedia page you can see that he studied at institutions in the soviet union were typically kgb agents also studied. so he is close to that world, that world of vlad