IL-76 Shot Down in Sudan Carried Russian Linked to Arms Dealer Viktor Bout

The Russian businessman Viktor Granov, who is connected to arms dealer Viktor Bout—released as part of the U.S.-Russia prisoner exchange—was reportedly on board the IL-76 cargo plane that was shot down in Sudan.

This was reported by Reuters with reference to the identity cards, photos of which the editorial office received from the Rapid Response Force (RSF) group that shot down the plane.

The crash site was found to contain the service ID, South African driver’s license and expired passport of 67-year-old Viktor Granov, who was one of the crew members.

According to a 2005 Amnesty International report, Granov, who was linked to Bout, was a South African businessman who ran two airlines that supplied arms to the Congo.

Viktor Bout is an international arms dealer who was sentenced in 2012 to 25 years in prison in the United States for trying to sell weapons to Colombian rebels. He returned to Russia due to the exchange.

The second crew member of the IL-76, according to a Russian passport found among the wreckage, could be 33-year-old Anton Selivanets.

In his social networks, journalists found photos of airplanes with the logo of the World Food Program.

However, a representative of this humanitarian organization told Reuters that Selivanets didn’t work with them.

RSF also provided journalists with a video that was allegedly taken from a cell phone found on the plane.

Reuters identified one of the men in the video as 61-year-old Russian Alexander Kabanov. The man’s social media accounts indicate that he served in the airborne troops and spent several years in Africa.

Relatives of all three Russians did not respond to journalists’ requests for comment.

An IL-76 cargo plane was shot down in Sudan on October 21, according to the RSF, “by mistake” because it was confused with a bomber. The group said the plane was used to drop weapons, ammunition and food to the city of El Fashr, which is surrounded by the group.