Qatar's Army starts using Russian AK-12 assault rifles
The delivery of the AK-12 to Qatar is just one sign of the increasing flow of Russian-made weaponry reaching countries in the Gulf region
Eyal Boguslavsky
| 20/04/2021
Screenshot from Russian state TV
The Qatari army began using Russian AK-12 assault rifles, according to photos published by Dutch blog Oryx. Qatar's acquisition of the assault rifle remains largely unreported, and imagery indicating their presence outside military parades so far appears to be nonexistent.
The delivery of the AK-12 to Qatar is just one sign of the increasing flow of Russian-made weaponry reaching countries in the Gulf region, which almost exclusively relied on arms sourced from Western countries in the past. Qatar is the first confirmed export customer of the new assault rifle, which only entered serial production in 2017, the report said.
Qatar's interest in Russian-made weaponry first came to light in 2016 and 2017, when it signed a series of agreements with Russia on military-technical cooperation during bilateral visits to Doha and Moscow. The first sighting of Russian weaponry in Qatar came a year later in December 2018, when hundreds of AK-12 rifles were seen in the hands of Qatari soldiers marching through Doha Corniche during that year's National Day parade, according to the blog.
Traditionally a customer of arms and equipment from France and later the US, the Qatar diplomatic crisis that lasted from 2017 to 2021 saw Qatar diversifying its procurement efforts to now also include Russia as a supplier of weaponry, said the report.
The delivery of the AK-12 to Qatar is just one sign of the increasing flow of Russian-made weaponry reaching countries in the Gulf region
Screenshot from Russian state TV
The Qatari army began using Russian AK-12 assault rifles, according to photos published by Dutch blog Oryx. Qatar's acquisition of the assault rifle remains largely unreported, and imagery indicating their presence outside military parades so far appears to be nonexistent.
The delivery of the AK-12 to Qatar is just one sign of the increasing flow of Russian-made weaponry reaching countries in the Gulf region, which almost exclusively relied on arms sourced from Western countries in the past. Qatar is the first confirmed export customer of the new assault rifle, which only entered serial production in 2017, the report said.
Qatar's interest in Russian-made weaponry first came to light in 2016 and 2017, when it signed a series of agreements with Russia on military-technical cooperation during bilateral visits to Doha and Moscow. The first sighting of Russian weaponry in Qatar came a year later in December 2018, when hundreds of AK-12 rifles were seen in the hands of Qatari soldiers marching through Doha Corniche during that year's National Day parade, according to the blog.
Traditionally a customer of arms and equipment from France and later the US, the Qatar diplomatic crisis that lasted from 2017 to 2021 saw Qatar diversifying its procurement efforts to now also include Russia as a supplier of weaponry, said the report.
