by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor

The United Nations (UN) Crime Commission will be discussing the UN Firearms Protocol that took affect earlier this year in Vienna the week of Oct. 17, the second week of the Conference of Parties to the UN Transnational Organized Crime Convention. Among the topics likely to be considered at the anti-crime meeting will be the legislative guide that is designed to help nations formulate legislation and regulations governing, among other issues, firearms and ammunition manufacture, sales, exports and domestic possession.

However, there may be some surprises. Moscow Times reports that Russia may be more of an ally to those reluctant to sign up for any currently proposed international firearms agreement, for export business reasons and to preserve intellectual property rights in the Kalashnikov.

Moscow Times reported that Russia plans to call on the support of members at the UN in its battle to regain leadership of the small arms market, citing a Foreign Ministry official. The Russians are trying to tackle unlicensed manufacturing of arms, including its best-selling Kalashnikov assault rifle, and Russia wants to have its intellectual property rights on small arms recognized under any UN initiative against illicit trade in small weapons.

Russia, which in Soviet times supplied its arms technology free-of-charge to countries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, has lost its leadership in the small arms market over the past decade, once estimated to be worth around $4 billion annually.

Russia sells up to $60 million in small arms per year, said Marat Kenzhetayev, an expert with the Center for Arms Control think tank. Earlier this year, Russia agreed to sell 100,000 Kalashnikovs to Venezuela for $50 million, a move that drew US complaints to Venezuela.

In its fight for UN support, Russia plans to push the issue of intellectual property rights both in Vienna this fall and at the 2006 international conference on illicit small arms trading, according to the Russian Information Agency (RIA) Novostia.

At the same time, Russia appears less than eager to pursue global eradication of civilian small arms possession, a primary goal of several non-government organizations (NGOs).

In discussing efforts to stamp out the illicit trade in small arms, the RIA Novostia military commentator, Viktor Litovkin, made some unusual remarks at the Aug. 3 Moscow briefing by the UN Information Center for Russian and foreign journalists. After conceding that the international firearms industry was not eager to reduce market size, he noted: “Moreover, the US Constitution allows everyone to buy small arms for self-defense, and nobody is going to change this.”

The UN briefers at the Moscow meeting reported that more than 1,000 companies from 98 countries produce small arms and light weapons, with 13 countries—Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Britain, and the US—dominating the market.