Diy section 1?

[Mattnall]

And you won't be able to import any Russian or old Russian federation/Soviet made parts until the DTI start liking them again.

I've got loads of stuff from Russia such as AK and Dragunov handguards/stocks, spare trigger springs etc, optics and other items despite the sanctions, it is primarily new products direct from JSC KalashnikovConcern and JSC Tulsky Oruzheiny Zavod (Tula Arms Plant) that are sanctioned so older stuff from private sellers isn't really a problem.....incidentally and somewhat surprisingly Vyatsko-Polyanskiy Mashinostroitelniy Zavod, more commonly known as "Molot" and producers of the Vepr-12 shotgun and RPK squad support weapon etc, aren't on the list of sanctioned companies.

It's not stuff already here but needing to be imported now and it seems to be location (country) specific not company specific, I guess you've just been lucky or maybe they're not too worried about parts.

This is part of a notice I got from the DTI ILB December last year.
It seems to include stuff that was originally 'Russian' but exported to somewhere else and now needs importing to the UK (or EU). Interestingly it mentions firearms and not firearm parts, but I'll have to check the actual directive or the Common Military list to clarify that point (ETA: the list includes components for said firearms unless they were made before 1938 or be of a design originally made before 1890).
Having heard what has happened to someone importing magazines via a third party country I'm not going to risk it.

In 2014 the European Union introduced a package of sanction measures against Russia, including a ban on the import, purchase or transport of any product from Russia that appears on the EU Common Military list (including all firearms). This ban applies whether a product is of Russian origin or shipped from the Russian Federation. This ban came into effect on 1st August 2014.

ILB have been made aware that some importers are attempting to import firearms manufactured in the USSR or Russia on the assumption that current import ban only applies to products shipped from or originating in the ‘Russian Federation’. Importers should be aware that importing, or attempting to import, these firearms into the UK will contravene the current EU ban on import of firearm. This is because the terms of ban refer specifically to products of ‘Russian origin’. Therefore, the intention this ban is to prohibit import goods originating in what is now known as the Russian Federation, irrespective of the name by which this State was known before it became the Russian Federation.

To avoid all doubt, the ban on the import of firearms manufactured or shipped from the Russian Federation also means any firearms manufactured in Russia, the USSR or any former names of the Russian Federation and its territories. Any other reading of the meaning of this import ban would have the effect of allowing the Russian Federation to continue to trade in "pre-1991" manufactured firearms. This is not the intention of the sanctions.

[snayperskaya]

No mate, the stuff I have had is from a contact in Moscow plus a few other places in Russia and Ukraine......far cheaper to buy it from the Motherland and former Soviet States than from sellers based here in the UK, plus when it comes to Soviet-era items like jackets etc sellers in Russia can source items rarely seen for sale in the UK from UK sellers......I have a pretty rare Berezka pattern Border Guard winter jacket for example, it is the even rarer Officers version with a real bear fur collar and as the Border Guard Service came under the command of the KGB they are quite rare, and they were highly prized by troops in Soviet-era Afghanistan.Also have a VSR-93 winter jacket in "Dubok" (little oak) pattern that was widely used in Chechnya and again these are rare in the UK as UK sellers tend to sell the WW2-era Telogreika quilted type jackets or old dress uniforms and not much else.

[polemass]

I think there is a market for "one off" AK types here.And will be harder to get one soon...Bulgarians are fully booked in Arsenal up to 2018-Oleg was trying to order some straight pull RPKs,waiting time hard to swallow..Builders RFD here in UK are afraid to work on AK platform.For that reason I will speak to my FLO about spare barrel 21.5" from Green Mountain USA,but do not have to much hope.Maybe Ovenpa wants some sidekick projects-so transfer all of info and know-how will go in good hands...?

[snayperskaya]

I think there is a market for "one off" AK types here.And will be harder to get one soon...Bulgarians are fully booked in Arsenal up to 2018-Oleg was trying to order some straight pull RPKs,waiting time hard to swallow..Builders RFD here in UK are afraid to work on AK platform.For that reason I will speak to my FLO about spare barrel 21.5" from Green Mountain USA,but do not have to much hope.Maybe Ovenpa wants some sidekick projects-so transfer all of info and know-how will go in good hands...?

I would agree, but the AK market in the UK is very much a niche market and unless you are into collecting AKs seriously the market is covered from a commercial point of view by Saiga's and the Romanian and Bulgarian offerings, which may all be in short supply what with the sanctions against Russia and Romania and Bulgaria churning out military AKs by the container load (military orders take priority and there's a lot of war being waged at the moment!).......and by that I mean no one here or overseas would really be interested in doing a "one-off" AK build for you but a batch of [insert appropriate number] and they might be interested.As I said I would love an AK built on an original 1960s Soviet AKM or a 1980s Zastava M70 but I don't think it would ever happen unless I moved to the States or signed up for a summer camp in Syria!.