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Clarifying What Happened With US Dept of Treasury and KALASHNIKOV

Rumors can generate some real stress so I want to recap what just happened factually.  Yesterday, the US Department of Treasury added certain Russian Firms to the “Specially Designated Nationals” list, which means US firms and individuals are prohibited from doing business with the named people or entities (such as corporations).  Here is the list of military industrial-related corporations they added:

  • Bazalt
  • Sozvezdie
  • NPO Mashinostroyenia
  • Almaz-Antey
  • Kalashnikov
  • KBP Instrument Design Bureau
  • Uralvagonzavod

For those of us into Russian firearms, the kicker is the addition of the holding company known as KALASHNIKOV  and here’s the actual SDN entry:

“SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION ASSOCIATION IZHMASH JOINT STOCK COMPANY (a.k.a. CONCERN KALASHNIKOV; a.k.a. IZHEVSKIY MASHINOSTROITEL’NYI ZAVOD OAO; f.k.a. IZHMASH R&D CENTER; f.k.a. JSC NPO
IZHMASH; a.k.a. KALASHNIKOV CONCERN; f.k.a. NPO IZHMASH OAO; a.k.a. OJSC CONCERN KALASHNIKOV; f.k.a. OJSC IZHMASH), 3, Derjabin Pr., Izhevsk , Udmurt Republic 426006, Russia; Registration ID 1111832003018 [UKRAINE2].”  — This is from the Treasury’s SDN update page 90 of the PDF:  http://www.treasury.gov/ofac/downloads/t11sdnew.pdf

Now, some people thought this just meant the Saiga line would be banned but the problem is that KALASHNIKOV is a holding company made up of both the Izhmash (Saiga) and Molot (Vepr).  To prove this, the following report is from Rostec who owns KALASHNIKOV, regarding the companies KALASHNIKOV owns:

  • JSC ‘NPO ‘IZHMASH’, Udmurt Republic
  • JSC ‘Izhevski mashzavod’, Udmurt Republic
  • ‘Koshkin Automatic line design bureau’ JSC, Moscow Region
  • ‘Klimov Special Ammunition Plant’, Moscow Region
  • JSC ‘NITI Progress’, Udmurt Republic
  • JSC ‘Molot’, Udmurt Republic
  • JSC ‘Izhevsky Mekhanichesky Zavod’, Udmurt Republic

The source page is:  http://rostec.ru/en/about/company/165

Given my research, it is clear both Saiga and Molot lines of rifles and shotguns will be blocked but the bad news does not end there.

The actual executive order passed by President Obama is far broader and states:

    Section 1. (a) All property and interests in property that 
are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United 
States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or 
control of any United States person (including any foreign 
branch) of the following persons are blocked and may not be 
transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:
          (i) the persons listed in the Annex to this order; 
        and
          (ii) persons determined by the Secretary of the 
        Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State:
                  (A) to be an official of the Government of 
                the Russian Federation;
                  (B) to operate in the arms or related 
                materiel sector in the Russian Federation;
                  (C) to be owned or controlled by, or to have 
                acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, 
                directly or indirectly:
                          (1) a senior official of the 
                        Government of the Russian Federation; 
                        or
                          (2) a person whose property and 
                        interests in property are blocked 
                        pursuant to this order; or
                  (D) to have materially assisted, sponsored, 
                or provided financial, material, or 
                technological support for, or goods or services 
                to or in support of:
                          (1) a senior official of the 
                        Government of the Russian Federation; 
                        or
                          (2) a person whose property and 
                        interests in property are blocked 
                        pursuant to this order.
    (b) The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section 
apply except to the extent provided by statutes, or in 
regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued 
pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract 
entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the 
effective date of this order.

Source:  http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CDOC-113hdoc98/html/CDOC-113hdoc98.htm

It would appear that existing contracts will be/should be honored.  Given the broad wording, this executive order could be used to block *new* contracts for the importation of Russian ammo as well.  In looking around so far this morning (6:30-7am Eastern), there didn’t appear to be price gouging by the big suppliers yet.  For example, SGAmmo still has fair prices for 7.62×39.  I must admit I am a bit nervous only for the reason that Golden Tiger is made in Russia by Vympel, also known as “Federal State Enterprise Production’s Amursk Cartridge Plant Vympel”.  I can only imagine that as word gets out there will be a run on Russian firearms and ammo that will only increase as time goes on until the word is fully spread.  Again, bear in mind that existing contracts should be honored given the above.

In short, Saiga and Vepr are blocked by name due to the KALASHNIKOV reference and the executive order could be used to block any *new* requests to import firearms or ammunition in general from Russia.  Not good news but with that said, there are many other countries with arms and ammunition production capabilities that will clearly exploit this opportunity.  People would be well served to start researching alternatives from Serbia, Romania, Poland and so forth.

Ultimately, only time will tell but I hope this gives people a better understanding of what was signed into law on July 16th.

My Tricked Out Romy G – MI Rails and AK Galil Grip

This is my personal Romy G rifle.  It has a Midwest Industries rail, Magul CTR stock with cheek riser, Ace modular stock adapter and our custom AK Galil grip.  The optic is a Primary Arms red dot.  In the Mil-Spec tube is a C&H mercury recoil suppressor to split the recoil impulse plus it adds weight to the rear shifting the balance point further back.

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The grip’s web page is:

http://shop.roninsgrips.com/Custom-Grip-Converted-Galil-for-AKs-with-Screw-AKGalil.htm


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John’s WASR with our Romy Brown STK grip

 

This is John’s WASR with Russian wood, bakelite mag, and SRVV sling.  He’s using one of our STK grips that is colored Romanian Brown.

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More Info on IMI Galil Rifles

I’ve always found the IMI Galil rifles one of the more interesting variations of the Kalashnikov AK design.  I thought you might find the following links of  interest if you want to learn more:

IMI Galil Page on Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMI_Galil

IMI Galil Assault Rifle (Israel) – On World Guns
http://world.guns.ru/assault/isr/galil-e.html

IMI Galil ARM / SAR Assault Rifle / Carbine / Submachine Gun / Designated Marksman Rifle
http://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=23

 

The following video is very informative.  It shows the rifle being made at IMI, interviews designers and talks about some of the unique features:

 

AK with Galil Furniture including our Custom Galil Grip for AKs

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This is an AK that has been outfit with Galil furniture.  The grip is from us and is based on an actual IMI Galil grip but we filled in the selector notch on the left side plus we trimmed the extended tab on the nose.

Anders’ Rifle With Our Dark US Plum First Generation Molot Grip

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Anders’ Rifle With Our Dark US Plum First Generation Molot Grip.

He tells me that he really likes the UBR stock.  I’m going to have to try one some time.

 

Tharin’s Rifle – KVar US Plum Furniture and Our Dark US Plum Polish AKM/Tantal Grip

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Tharin’s Sweet rifle – it has K-Var US Plum Furniture and Our Dark US Plum Polish AKM/Tantal Grip.

Our Dark US Plum color is the one that comes closest to the K-Var color by the way.


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Jake’s Arsenal SGL 21-94 with our black Molot grip

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From “Jake’s Gun Reviews”:  Rifle is an Arsenal, Inc., SGL 21-94 with a Bulgarian sling, our black grip, Ultimak M1-B gas tube, AimPoint Micro H1, and a SureFire 6PX Pro. in a VLTOR SMQ-OCG offset mount.

 


If you find this post useful, please share the link on Facebook, with your friends, etc. Your support is much appreciated and if you have any feedback, please email me at in**@*********ps.com. Please note that for links to other websites, we are only paid if there is an affiliate program such as Avantlink, Impact, Amazon and eBay and only if you purchase something.