Posted on 04/16/2006 8:10:43 PM PDT by Thunder90
Russian news agency Interfax: The Russian state arms trading agency Rosoboronexport has denied reports by a number of US media alleging that Russia will sell outdated Kalashnikov assault rifles to Venezuela instead of modern ones, as it promised to do earlier.
"We would like to express our surprise and even outrage at an April 10 article published in the Washington Times. The allegations it makes are untrue and absolutely absurd," Rosoboronexport spokesman Valery Kartavtsev said at a press conference, Saturday.
According to a contract signed in May 2005, Russia will sell 100,000 AK-103 rifles to the Venezuelan army and security forces, Kartavtsev said. "Not a single rifle of this model has yet crossed the Russian border."
Venezuelan experts recently visited the Izhmash engineering plant to inspect the first shipment of the Kalashnikovs, he said.
The contract also envisions the licensed production of AK-103s in Venezuela ... "Venezuela will become the first country in the western hemisphere to receive a license to produce them," Izhmash general director Vladimir Grodetsky said.
Currently there is no licensed production of Kalashnikov assault rifles in any other country.
Ping

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We're in a tight spot!
I don't know. This doesn't really bother me all that much. I personally love AK's, but they're an outdated military rifle even in this most modern incarnation and it seems that the whole darn world has already has a mess of 'em anyway. Venezuela could have bought AK's from China and gotten the same bang for a lot less bucks.
"Their media is largely state controlled. Russian media toes the party line near completely."
Much like the current Democrat controlled main steam media in the U.S. today?
This doesn't worry me. They already have FALs. So now they will have AKs. Guns don't kill people, psychotic dictators kill people.
I forgot to say that with a liscense from that company, Venezuela will be able to produce RPG rockets and antitank missiles.
It's the number, and who they will give the AK's to, that is of concern.
Also I think this arming-the-population thing can cut both ways. If Chavez arms every farmer, then Chavez empowers every farmer. He should think about that.
In that same light, before giving the guns out, the people have to pass a loyalty test. They won't get guns otherwise.
I'd climb over a pile of FALs to get to that one AK.
Does anyone really think that a rifle is the 21st century means anything when it comes to warfare?! I have many military rifles, and I cherish them. But our technology can make a quantum leap to lasers, etc. is a heartbeat. Let's tell the generals to quit fighting yesterday's wars..and bring on the new stuff, which has already been invented. I am tired of reading that a Marine has died in a firefight, That is ancient history, from WWI through Vietnam. Let's unleash the dogs of war. We have weapons where no Marine dies. I have seen it. Unfortunately, it's not PC. And Marines and soldiers die, one by one. What a waste.
In 20 years, we could have warp technology, Phasers, and leave the solar system (If we pored all of our resources into them)
Much worse.
The US is one of the FEW nations that have a true "private" media. Many of our MSM has a political orientation no doubt, but nonetheless the are not under the governments thumb as in most of this world.
Realize that even in Western Europe a large part of the MSM is basically a state entity with appointed directors, tax funded programming, etc!
So while CNN is definitely pro democrat (Most of the heads of CNN are Democrats), it still is a private firm that the government does not control unlike in Germany where you have ARD, ZDF, HR3, SWF, DW, NDR, WDR
. All state run media outlets that tend to: toe the party line.
http://www.dw-world.de/ Example- Their CEO is a government appointed official. They get their money through tax revenue that is collected by a state organization called the GEZ. The government controls the cash flow as well. You think this is a private media outlet? Hell now.
In Germany (I use them as an example often since Im very familiar with them but they are actually not even as bad as say France) you have about a 50:50 mix when it comes to media and news reporting. But in Russia its completely state run. Even the so called private channels operate under the fear of special taxes that can get levied against them
.. Russia has no free media. Much of Western Europe has a partially free media while in the US you have anarchy. Again, most have a spin, but nonetheless they are private and truly have little undue influence from the state.
I'm regretting selling mine.
"The future is here now. It's just not evenly distributed." (William Gibson)
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