MOSCOW, September 7 - RAPSI. Convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout is expected to submit an application to the US authorities for his extradition to Russia in the near future, Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov told journalists on Friday.

He said the issue of extraditing convicted individuals to Russia is complicated. Initially, Bout must submit an application on his extradition to the US authorities if he wishes to be extradited, Konovalov said.

Bout was arrested in Thailand in March 2008 during a sting operation led by U.S. agents and extradited to the United States in November 2010 after spending more than two and half years in a Thai prison. The jury of the Federal District Court of New York found him guilty of conspiring to kill U.S. officials and citizens, of acquiring and intending to sell Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and providing support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), considered a terrorist group by the United States. Bout was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Bout's wife submitted an application to the ministry requesting her husband's extradition to Russia, so that he can finish his prison sentence here. The ministry said it is Russia's central authority authorized to submit requests on the transfer of individuals convicted by member states of the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons of 1983 as part of the instrument.