“I wished him luck, he even extended his hand to me,” Bout said in an interview with Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT on Saturday.
“Again, this is our tradition. You should wish everyone good luck and happiness,” he said, adding that he believed Griner had a “positive inclination” toward him.
Speaking to Maria Butina, who herself spent 14 months in a US prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent and is now an MP and RT presenter, Bout praised President Vladimir Putin, whose portrait she Said to have hung on the wall of his cell.
When asked about Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, Bout said he wished Moscow would be able to start it sooner.