Russia honours Mr Kalashnikov

The weapon of choice for soldiers and rebels alike, the Kalashnikov assault rifle went into mass production six decades ago.

Today, more than 100 million AK47s have been sold worldwide. Its huge success is due to its simplicity and ease of maintenance, all thanks to its Russian inventor - Mikhail Kalashnikov.

Now the man who invented it is celebrating his 90th brithday. Al Jazeera correspondent Neave Barker visited Kalashnikov's home town of Izhevsk to meet the man and the significance and consequences of his invention.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Al Jazeera
• Kalashnikov
• AK47
• Neave Barker

[ohohlund]

Thats a lengendary man ....and a lengendary rifle..

[EquipaPatriot]

This is about the only report from AlJazeeraEnglish that is not biased and one I agree with.

I am a proud owner of a Bulgarian AK-74 variant. I hope to soon own a Russian variant.

[MESlaboratory]

oh yeah my little sister shoots better than he -.- pussy and as for the quality of the Germans deserve first place.... Germans are just born for it...

[MESlaboratory]

90th years wooow man :D if 3000 ppl die from AK-47 he gets +1 year of life :D

[DataKlok]

1:03 you don't know how to shot

pussy

[AlexDjakonda]

@unrealassasination In this video they show and prove, that AK has nothing to do with germans :)

[AlexDjakonda]

@StoutMarine For *clever* guy like you, i will say that AK47 was made in 1947. lol.Those times - simply the best. Nowadays, like you said - hard to choose smth else.

[CommyNiST94]

@unrealassasination STG-44 is generally the other barrel. Kalashnikov his weapon from the ground up doing ...

[StoutMarine]

Many weapons are made the same. The AK is a sweet weapon but there is no such thing as the perfect weapon. AK have good accuracy up to 200m but AR's have good accuracy up to 500m Ak has much more knockdown than a AR but an AR round will bounce around in you. Hard to choose just one.

[TelPrank]

@unrealassasination

i repeat: tell us EXACTLY what is "the same" with STG-44 and AK(47) ? I had them both in my hands, so now i want to hear it from you, mrs Expert. Dont tell me about the look. A lot of weapons look "same". And then tell us why Kalashnikov could not made it without germans.

[unrealassasination]

@IbrownrussianbearI I dont know what they are saying in this vid but I think they kinda show the thruth bout the ak-47 /watch?v=9N_4AhJJHsM&feature=r­elated

[unrealassasination]

@IbrownrussianbearI they made the Horton HO-IX the first stealth bomber/fighter. also the U.S. and the Sovjet union(U.S. brought german engineers and scientist to the US with operation Paperclip) but for the Sovjets I think they forced most of them to do their work.