Having one of the largest arms industries in the world, Russia exports 150,000 SALW and 200,000,000 units of ammunition per year, contributing over $100 million to the economy.
Within the borders of Russia itself, there is clearly a problem with the availability of arms in the Chechnya region, scene of several wars since the formation of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). While there are certainly illicit transfers of weapons to the Chechnyan separatists from Belarus, Georgia and the Transdniestr region, the Russian non-compliance with the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty in Chechnya has limited possible international cooperation to tackle the issue.

A major concern for SALW campaigners is the stockpiles of 2,000,000 surplus weapons. This is expected to increase to 12,000,000 SALW in the next few years as the armed forces are downsized. While hopelessly obsolete weapons are destroyed (400,000 between 1998 and 2001) the government has no qualms about exporting usable surplus, major customers including Bhutan, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Kenya and Namibia.

The Russian government is committed to the destruction of illicit weapons seized by the police (1000 in 2001) and has cooperated with the OSCE destroying army surpluses in the Dniestr Region and in Georgia.

Organisations

Kaliningrad Resource Centre
Russian Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (e-mail vs@chel-hanf.chel.su)
Advocates Without Borders (e-mail asf-klg@mail.ru)
Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST)
UNDP Russia

Other links

SAFER-Net have factsheet on legislation and ownership of small arms
Personal webpage on firearms in Russia
Newspaper article on the Odessa mafia and SALW (2001)