Russian weapons company Kalashnikov reports record year

Russian arms manufacturer Kalashnikov is already talking about a 20-year "record" in sales of its legendary assault rifle after seven months of war in Ukraine.

Sales of Kalashnikovs have increased by 40%, company president Alan Lushnikov announced in the city of Izhevsk on Thursday. He did not give absolute sales figures for the world's most widely used weapon.

The priority, on behalf of the Russian Defence Ministry, is its own army, Lushnikov stressed. "Ensuring the country's defence capability especially in the current conditions is the task that all departments of the company are focused on fulfilling without exception." Kalashnikovs are also being used in the war in Ukraine.

According to Lushnikov, however, the increase in sales is also due to exports. Already in September, this had exceeded last year's total exports.

"Our production capacities are being used quite intensively this year," he said. According to earlier information, India, for example, is receiving 70,000 AK-103 Kalashnikovs.

The Russian arms export company Rosoboronexport had reported that it now sells more than 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles of various models abroad every year.

The Kalashnikov automatic rifle (AK) is the most widely used assault rifle in the world and is often copied without a Russian licence.

In August last year, the Kalashnikov corporation announced that it had signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence for hundreds of thousands of new AK-12 assault rifles. The renewal of the army's equipment is planned over years, it said.