Category Archives: Russia and also USSR

Germany plus Historical East and West, Russia and also USSR, Sniper / Precision Rifles

Video: Ostfront 1987: Walther WA-2000 vs SVD Dragunov from InRangeTV

This 30:11 long video had me seriously drooling.  You have Ian McCollum from Forgotten Weapons and Karl Kasarda from InRangeTV squaring off on targets.  Ian is firing a rare German Walther WA-2000 sniper rifle in .300 Win Mag and Karl is shooting the Russian 7.62x54R SVD Dragunov.  They role play a bit and take this back to the Eastern Front of 1987.  I think both rifles are amazing and both presenters do a great job.  It’s very cool to see what the rifles can actually do vs. armchair myth.  Kudos to both men!

Here’s The Video

 

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Russia and also USSR, Shooting in General

The latest about the Vepr and Saiga import bans and the Kalashnikov Group Rebranding

gI_60121_Kalashnikov Concern

As you may know, in July 2014 the owner, Rostec, of the Baikal, Saiga and Vepr brands was put on the US sanctions list to punish Russia.  That apparently put a halt to about half of a 200,000 rifle deal being halted that they are now trying to find other buyers for and is hurting them financially:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30404648

Kalshnikov group is trying hard to improve the brand’s reputation and has approximately 30 different brands in the works.  As of 12/5/2014, they say they are focusing on Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific markets and not the US.  What I would read into that is that they are not publicly pushing to get back into the US.  Given how huge the market is here, I can’t help but feel they are still trying to get back in but there isn’t any public information about their efforts.  The two following stories about their rebranding efforts are interesting:

http://rbth.com/defence/2014/12/05/kalashnikov_targets_expansion_with_large-scale_rebranding_exercise_41991.html

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/12/prweb12365634.htm

Unfortunately, as of today, December 14th, there are no indications that we are going to see the Vepr or Saiga rifles coming back into the US any time soon.  Putin’s friends are still making a ton of money and the sanctions aren’t changing his mind any. The problem with sanctions in general is that they sound good politically but often don’t work very well.

The change in ownership from the huge Russian conglomerate known as “Rostec State Corporation” to the private individuals of Alexei Krivoruchko and Andrei Bokarev hasn’t yielded any changes thus far.  The initial hope was that by moving ownership of the Kalashnikov to someone/or a group not on the named sanctions list would improve the situation but that does not seem to be the case thus far.

Bottom line, no changes or “cracks” in the import ban are visible via publicly accessible news stories and such.  It would look like we are stuck, and will be for the foreseeable future, on the sidelines still unable to import the Russian weapons.

Russia and also USSR, Uncategorized

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.