Russian weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov has signed agreements with partners in Malaysia and Thailand to sell civilian weapons, months after the company was ejected from the U.S. market in retaliation for Moscow's actions in Ukraine.
Increasingly reliant on civilian rifle sales, Kalashnikov has been reeling after U.S. sanctions on Russia cut the arms manufacturer off from the U.S. civilian arms market, the world's biggest, in June.
“Contracts signed with Asia-Pacific region countries will help to demonstrate the advantages of our arms inventory and the [company's] outlook in terms of sanctions and the globalization of world markets,” Kalashnikov CEO Alexei Krivoruchko was quoted as saying in a company statement on Friday.
The company began to aggressively target the U.S. market earlier this year, when it signed an exclusive distribution agreement with the U.S.-based Russian Weapons Company to export 200,000 civilian rifles to North America annually.
But even with sanctions derailing this deal, Kalashnikov says it has still increased the volume of its deliveries more than threefold over 2012's exports.
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