Russians fume over sale of AK-47 rifles to US
By Andrew Osborn
Moscow - America has found itself on the defensive after Russia accused
Washington of colluding in the counterfeiting of its most famous and
iconic
arms export - the AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle.
Russia accused the United States yesterday of supplying thousands of
cheap
copies of the ubiquitous weapon to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The complaint, which originated from the gun's 84-year- old inventor,
Mikhail Kalashnikov, and Russia's state-controlled arms exporter
Rosoboronexport, alleged that the US had organised huge illegal
transfers
of counterfeited
AK-47s to the nascent military and security forces of Kabul and Baghdad
to
aid their battle against insurgents.
Russia said the US had procured the "clones" from factories in Romania,
Bulgaria and Hungary despite the fact that, since 1997, Russia had
owned
the exclusive patent for the machinegun and demanded that future
shipments
be arranged through Moscow.
It said it had been deprived of much-needed hard currency earnings as a
result, that Russian jobs had been lost and that the Kalashnikov
"brand"
had been damaged.
The Kalashnikov, designed in 1947, is said to be the world's most
prolific
killing machine.
Over 100-million rifles or derivatives have been produced since 1949,
when
it entered into service, and copies are reported to be produced in at
least
19 countries.
The favoured weapon of terrorists the world over, it is famed for its
simplicity (it has just nine moving parts) and its durability (it
rarely,
if ever, jams).
The US embassy in Moscow said yesterday it was unaware of the issue,
while
Rosoboronexport referred inquiries to Kalashnikov himself, who was
quoted
in The New York Times as saying he was furious with the Americans.
"They (the US) are buying Kalashnikovs from other countries. We see a
great
number of products which are named after Kalashnikov, my name," he
said.
"(Former Russian) president Boris Yeltsin said he would do everything
(to
protect the trademark) but it's not so easy."
The newspaper said a US State Department official had conceded that
Washington would have to do more to tighten controls on arms exports
and
that non-Russian Kalashnikovs had indeed been supplied to Iraq and
Afghanistan.
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=132&fArticleId=2164829
