The prosecution and defense teams wrapped up their closing arguments Monday in the trial of suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout. Prosecutor Anjan Sahni s said Bout was “ready, willing and able” to sell weapons to terrorists who turned out to be U.S.-paid undercover informants. Lead defense attorney Albert Y. Dayan said the hours of wiretapped meetings and calls did not amount to proof of intent to deliver weapons to terrorists. Jury deliberations could begin as early as Tuesday. The trial is into its third week after the prosecution finished its testimony last Friday and Bout’s lawyers called no witnessnes. Whatever the verdict is, the case has turned a microscopic lens on Bout’s internal business dealings, revealing his predilection for code words, his familiarity with the minutiae of Russian weapons systems and the slip-ups that led to his arrest.

—AP, By Stephen Braun, “Closing arguments in his federal trial in New York on conspiracy charges were under way Monday and jury deliberations will follow, but Bout’s private world has already spilled wide open. More than 70 transcripts compiled from wiretapped meetings and conversations and scores of phone calls and text messages depict everything from his preference for lemon in tea to his use of memory cards in cell phones to disguise the trail of his phone calls. A long-time South African associate, Andrew Smulian, recounted an intimate three-day visit with Bout in Moscow where their talks hatched a $15 million weapons deal with purported terrorists who turned out to be U.S.-paid informants.”

—NYT, “The debate over Mr. Bout’s true intentions leading up to his arrest in an American-led sting operation in Thailand is drawing to a close, and on Monday, a jury heard closing arguments in a trial that has lasted nearly three weeks.”

—Bloomberg, “Bout repeatedly said he was ready, willing and able to carry out this weapons deal,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Anjan Sahni told the jury. “This was a relationship that could have meant millions of dollars.”

—AP, “Viktor Bout told contacts posing as members of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, “We are together,” said prosecutor Anjan Sahni. “We have the same enemy.”