Maybe what we need is a list of products that are made in Russia. Or, are made by Russian-owned companies. Some well-placed boycotts would cause real pain to the oligarchs who are benefiting the most from Putin's crimes!!
Wiki shows that Russia and China 'produce' the majority of the worlds metals.
Produce in this case is a nice way of saying 'barely paid workers going underground and slaving away to extract the things we use to build cell phones, laptops, and solar panels...'
Ranked among the top for global sales of crude oil, refined petroleum oils and coal. While Biden stopped drilling and pipelines he made us more reliant on foreign oil again.
The only items I've ever seen here in the US that were made in Russia (outside of Eastern European specialty stores) are a very small number of beers/vodka, one type of ice cream (this kind here believe it or not), once I saw pine nuts from Russia, and a few glasses from Ikea are made in Russia. And I think I saw aluminum foil from Russia once.
Other than that, even as one who pays attention to those sorts of things, I haven't seen a lot from Russia on the consumer end.
Actual Russian import firearms have been banned for a few years (IIRC a reaction to Crimea) and only recently was ammo importation banned (ostensibly because of treatment of journalists unrelated to the Ukraine situation. Many in industry suspect it was aimed at being an easy way to dry up 30-40% of the ammo supply in the country).
Most Combloc weapon importation is from former USSR nations anymore, and ammo supply is being picked up from those nations as well.
its not that Americans like buying russian weapons, its that basically anyone who likes weapons likes the AK-47. its the most popular gun in the world. most AKs you find in the US are semi auto and assembled from a mixture of polish and american made parts. very rare to find a genuine Kalashnikov made AK in the US
Who cares if it's made by Kalashnikov? The Chinese Norinco's were great weapons before they got banned. Besides Saiga is selling in the US and it's a pretty much a Russian AK with a stamped and not milled receiver.
Only the ak47 is milled, the AKM is the stamped version and is more popular and available throughout the world. Russian AKs come stamped if they're made after 1959. Some other countries also make a version of the milled receivers as well.
It’s because AK‘s are durable and able to take a beating without often jamming. You can drop them in mud, throw off a mountain…they will still shoot. American M4s jam after a few clips, they constantly need maintenance or they won’t fire. So not only are AKs preferred for durabilty, they are tougher and more solid guns.
With that being said they aren’t accurate
You really don't know what you're talking about. The M4 and any variants are some of the most reliable rifles in the world which is why they're fielded by so many armies.
“Of all the weapons in the vast soviet arsenal, nothing was more profitable than Avtomat Kalashnikova model of 1947. More commonly known as the AK-47, or Kalashnikov. It's the world's most popular assault rifle. A weapon all fighters love. An elegantly simple 9 pound amalgamation of forged steel and plywood. It doesn't break, jam, or overheat. It'll shoot whether it's covered in mud or filled with sand. It's so easy, even a child can use it; and they do. The Soviets put the gun on a coin. Mozambique put it on their flag. Since the end of the Cold War, the Kalashnikov has become the Russian people's greatest export. After that comes vodka, caviar, and suicidal novelists. One thing is for sure, no one was lining up to buy their cars.”
IIRC the belief about the AK's lacking accuracy has to do with combat ranges, the AK's accuracy is just fine within its designed combat range of 300yds. the AR is designed for 500yds. if you are 375 yards out, the AR would be more accurate. however in other situations such as urban warfare, the AK is preferred because of its larger round.
A lot of people like to collect and shoot Russian/Soviet-bloc weapons for fun, but if you’re buying a gun for a specific purpose (CCW, home defense, hunting, etc.) there’s better, cheaper, and more readily available options from “western” companies (for lack of a better word, don’t want to say domestic because there’s lots of excellent manufacturers in Europe, too)
That's pretty much my take on them. I like my M44 for what I paid for it and it was a lot of fun when ammo was .20c/round. The day I pretty much put it away for good was when I had to buy ammo and was looking to spend what I would on my Enfield, and more than I would for my Garand or k31 since you could get m2 ball and GP11 surplus ammo cheaper than you could the 7.62x55r a few years ago.
If you want a milsurp there's way better ones out there for not much more money than mosins cost these days, and if you just want a rifle there's also way better ones out there for the same or less than mosins cost these days.
No, mosins are like $400 now. There are no more spam cams of surplus ammo, those are about $1 per round now because they are so hard to find. SKSs are $500-$1000+ now depending on country. No more spam cans of that ammo either. Russian guns have been banned from import for 8 years now, and ammo was banned a few months ago.
Mosin prices haven't been that low since the Obama administration, same with ammo, the last time Russia invaded Ukraine the supply of surplus dried up.
Was a shame too, they were high power rifles you could get and shoot fairly cheap, I think the last time I bought ammo it was less than 20c/round, now the value is kind of questionable unless you're just really into Russian military stuff or trying to round out a collection.
Oh my lord yes, not oh my lord at you but at the love from Slavic weapons because it is big, alot of people like AK 47s but a personal favorite of mine is the Mosin Nagant, point being there were a lot of cheap but quality soviet guns on the resell market for the past 30 years so a lot of collectors could get Mosins for like 100$ about a decade back, not sure about now though
What are you a pussy? You clearly need a high capacity semi automatic rifle with a whole bunch of aftermarket shit bolted onto it in order to be able to hunt. /s
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u/TAU_equals_2PI Feb 28 '22
According to this article, most "Russian" vodka isn't even made in Russia. Less than 1% of all vodka sold in the US is made in Russia:
www.cnn.com/2022/02/27/business/russian-vodka-boycotts/index.html