"In the past five years, annual exports of Russian-made small arms, close-combat weapons and ammunition grew 60% on average and reached about $200 million," Sergei Chemezov said at a Moscow conference dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the famed Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle.
In the most notable recent deal, Russia sold 100,000 AK-103 Kalashnikov assault rifles to Venezuela in 2005.
Chemezov said more than 100 million Kalashnikov rifles were produced during 60 years and it remained unrivaled in terms of quality and distribution, despite fierce competition on the global arms market.
However, Russia suffers major losses from the counterfeit manufacture of Kalashnikov assault rifles abroad, the official said.
"More than 30 foreign companies, private and state-owned, are continuing to manufacture poor-quality [Kalashnikov] rifles, and it damages the reputation of the brand," Chemezov said, adding that Russia would increase efforts to expand its presence on small arms markets, but would do it "in a fair and civilized way."
Another Rosoboronexport official, Valery Varlamov, said: "The Russian economy suffers an annual loss of some $2 billion from worldwide counterfeit production of Kalashnikov assault rifles."
The armies of 47 countries use the AK-47 assault rifle, known as the Kalashnikov after its designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov.
About a million AK-47s and modified versions are believed to be sold around the world annually, but Russia accounts for only 10-12% of the sales.
There is no single licensing agreement conforming to international legal norms that specifically protects Russia's intellectual property rights in small arms and light weapons production.
Almost half of all NATO member countries have yet to sign intellectual property rights protection agreements with Russia, including Lithuania, Latvia, Canada, Iceland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway.
