Sales of fake Kalashnikov guns bring USD 2 billion of profit

The Russian defense export enterprise, Rosoboronexport, signed a contract to deliver 100,000 Kalashnikov guns AK-103 to Venezuela in May 2005. In addition, Venezuela intends to launch the licensed production of Russia's world-known gun and manufacture 900,000 Kalashnikovs according to applicable international laws and standards.

Photo: Sales of fake Kalashnikov guns bring USD 2 billion of profit

Sales of fake Kalashnikov guns bring USD 2 billion of profit

The deal between Russia and Venezuela has caused quite a stir in the US administration. American officials started scheming against the two countries to ruin the deal between them.

The central newspaper of the White House, The Washington Times, published an article which said that Russia had shipped outdated AK-47 Kalashnikov guns to Venezuela instead of the up-to-date AK-103 model of the weapon. Venezuela, the newspaper wrote, was forced to suspend the execution of the transaction.

Russia could not sit on its hands and watch the USA destroy the deal. Spokespeople for Rosoboronexport said at a press conference on Saturday that the contract was being executed under the supervision of Venezuelan specialists. The specialists work at the Russian factory producing the renowned guns and thus check every single piece. A senior spokesman for the Russian company, Dmitry Shugaev, said that US moneymakers need to criticize themselves instead: “They ship tens of thousands of fake and bad quality AK-47 Kalashnikov guns to new armies of Iraq and Afghanistan .

The sales of such fake guns all over the world bring up to two billion dollars of profit a year. In this connection Russia is going to take the illegal Kalashnikov dealers under strict control. Unlike US “businessmen,” Cuban importers of weaponry, for example, intend to organize the production of genuine AK guns.

Komsomolskaya Pravda

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov

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