KUBINKA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th August, 2022) The construction of plants for the production of AK-103 Kalashnikov assault rifles in Venezuela will be completed despite existing difficulties, the head of the Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport, Alexander Mikheev, said on Tuesday.
"The construction of the (Kalashnikov) plants is carried out by both Russian technical specialists and Venezuelan contractors. Despite the objective difficulties, the facilities will be completed," Mikheev told reporters on the sidelines of the annual Army-2022 forum in the Moscow Region.
The contract for the construction of Kalashnikov plants in Venezuela was signed in 2001, but the facilities have not yet been launched. In December 2021, the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation said that the start of production has been scheduled for 2022.
The project was delayed by several criminal cases initiated over embezzlement during construction. In 2017, ex-senator of Russia's Belgorod Region, Sergey Popelnyukhov, who headed the construction company Stroyinvestingengineering SU-848 building the Kalashnikov plants in Venezuela, was sentenced to seven years in prison for the theft of more than 1 billion rubles ($16.3 millions) from Rosoboronexport JSC. In 2018, the same constructor company's former financial director, Irina Pomeshchikova, was sentenced to three years in prison for fraud.
