Thank you, as I was going to concur on that your statement.
Got a gal here I work with from Russia who confirms your information.
AND
There are tons of (Russian) folks who are/were grandfathered in when these rules took effect, and none of these rules include the black market, of course.
In short, the Russian citizens are ARMED.
Which leads me to state the point I was going to make: If Russia wants all of the Ukraine right now, they can take the country without firing a shot by declaring the following:
1) insure all bank deposits with oil revenue.
2) you can keep your guns.
3) Optional: Protection from Mandated EU social contracts (e.g. no forced free sodomy laws as a pre-requisite for aid)
Check and Mate.
P.S. The way this government and the EU is acting, no need to worry about Putin/Russia making any moves toward the Baltic states. They’ll come running to Russia’s open arms for for protection.
Hunting long firearms for anyone — that is what gun control looks like. Notice: no automatic anything, and no handguns.
There is a huge movement in RF to allow them handguns, because you cannot walk around with a shotgun to protect yourself.
At this point there is no going back for Ukraine, excepting possibly Crimea and South East. They are a proud nation that has been invaded. They will fight with sticks if they have to. They won’t be bought for anything. I think they made a decision about EU; they are not crazy about EU bureaucratic liberalism, but they’d rather have that than neo-sovietism of RF.