Kalashnikov sets sights on global 'counterfeits'

0 Comments | AFP, August, 2007

IZHEVSK, Russia (AFP) — Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the world's most famous assault rifle, is angry with what he calls "counterfeit" production of his gun and the rifle's producer has the culprits in its sights.

"They just use the brand, the fame. It's not fair," Kalashnikov, 87, said at a press conference in the industrial city of Izhevsk, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) east of Moscow.

Officials at the Kalashnikov factory estimate their losses at around 360 million dollars (261 million euros) every year because of Kalashnikov-type rifles produced in Bulgaria, China, Poland and the United States.

"It's a major problem for us ... It's against international law and it's against our factory," the facility's director, Vladimir Grodetsky, said this week during...