The gunmaker Kalashnikov has opened a store in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport, selling souvenirs that include plastic model guns and “I love AK” T-shirts.
By the end of 2016, 200 civilian goods, including weapon prototypes, glasses and headphones designed for target shooting, caps, sweatshirts, pens, bags and other souvenirs bearing the Kalashnikov symbols will be available to buy.
“‘Kalashnikov’ is one of the most popular brands that springs to mind when people all around the world come to think about Russia,” said Kalashnikov’s Marketing Director Vladimir Dmitriev in a statement on the website. “That is why we are happy to give everyone who comes to visit Russia an opportunity to take home a souvenir with a Kalashnikov logo.”
“We hope that people would highly evaluate our initiative and buy our company souvenirs as a memory of their trip,” he added.
An airport official told Reuters that the model guns—automatic pistols and rifles—would “very clearly be imitations and pose no security problems.”
Kalashnikov’s AK-47 assault rifle has armed Russian forces for 70 years and has been the preferred weapon of insurgents across continents. It was introduced in 1948, armed the whole of the Soviet Union and eastern Europe in communist times and served largely pro-Soviet rebel forces across Africa and Asia, Reuters reports.
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