He was released by the biggest arms exporter in the world.
"Only the US Government should be arming conflicts worldwide, and sometimes even both sides of the same conflict, not individuals", apparently.
I'm not saying what Bout did should have been legal or illegal, but atleast I wasn't paying for it with my tax dollars.
He atleast claims he doesn't think he's important to Russian politics. I dunno..
I haven't really followed the case too closely. Hell.. The most I know about him is from a fictionalized account of him that took liberties and didn't even use his name. It was a great role for Nicholas Cage and a lot of fun.