Lieutenant General Mikhail Kalashnikov (1919- ), legendary Soviet Russian arms designer… still goin’ strong at 92!
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On Tuesday, legendary Russian gun designer Mikhail Kalashnikov agreed to become an aide to Dmitri Rogozin, the newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the country’s defense industry, our RIA-Novosti correspondent reported. Kalashnikov, 92, accepted the offer, which Rogozin made during a visit to the Izhmash plant in the Volga city of Izhevsk, which produces Kalashnikov AK assault rifles. Rogozin said, “I have a personal request for you… to become my advisor”. Rogozin, who was the Russian envoy to NATO before his appointment as Deputy Prime Minister late last year, added, “I’ll have only one advisor in Russia, and that’ll be Kalashnikov”. In September 2011, Army General Nikolai Makarov, Chief of the General Staff, said that the Defense Ministry had stopped procuring AK-74 rifles because there was an oversupply of the weapons, indicating that new models of small arms and light weapons would replace it. The AK-74 is the most widely used and well-known assault rifle in the world. Some 50 armies around the world, as well as countless guerrilla movements, use it.
24 January 2012
RIA-Novosti
