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Russia ready to sell its ammunition to Pentagon only if sanctions lifted — Rostec

US media earlier reported the US Army was looking to acquire ammunition for use with Russian-made assault rifles, pistols, sniper rifles and machine guns

© Sergei Bobylyov/TASS

MOSCOW, May 28. /TASS/. Russia’s state corporation Rostec is ready to supply authentic ammunition for Soviet- and Russian-made guns to the US military only after anti-Russian sanctions are lifted, a company spokesperson told TASS on Monday.

Last week, the Defense Blog online military magazine reported the US Army was looking to acquire special ammunition for use with Russian-made assault rifles, pistols, sniper rifles and machine guns. According to general specification from the notice, the US Army looks to buy small-caliber ammunition for use with Makarov and Tokarev pistols, AK-47 assault rifles, PKM and YaKB/DshKM machine guns, SVD Dragunov sniper rifles.

Commenting on the information, the Russian state corporation said that "at present, the Russian ammunition industry is ready to supply to the international market the whole range of ammunition for combat, service and civilian weapons of the Soviet/Russian standard, and also to certain models of NATO weapons."

"Basic characteristics demonstrate that modern Russian ammunition is the world’s best. Original and high-quality Russian-made ammunition can be supplied to the United States only if relevant sanctions are lifted," the company said.

Earlier, the Pengaton demonstrated interest in producing certain types of Soviet and Russian guns on the US territory. In March 2018, the National Interest magazine reported that the United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) was looking into the possibility of producing Russian weaponry on the US soil, including the 7.62mm caliber general-purpose PKM machine gun and the NSV 12.7mm caliber heavy machine gun.

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