4. Known sources of local production and supply of law-enforcement equipment in the Caucasus and Central Asia I. Manufacturers and suppliers of law-enforcement products Until the fall of the Soviet Union, the provision of police equipment to internal security forces fell to Soviet suppliers. Crowd-control equipment consisting of launched kinetic-impact ammunition and riot control agents were produced in Russia and Ukraine. Ammunition factories were established in a number of Central Asian states including Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan, the latter of which is still known to be producing riot-control ammunition today. It is unclear whether the factory in Kyrgyzstan had this capability. While Russian police equipment is still in use in a number of states, notably Armenia (where police used Russian-style riot-control ammunition in the 2004 and 2008 demonstrations in Yerevan), a range of different devices has started to be deployed or marketed from outside of the region. This chapter highlights some of the local sources of production for law-enforcement equipment and will provide an illustrative list of companies and products known to be manufactured or supplied by local businesses in the region. Imports from outside of the region are detailed in section II of this chapter. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, police forces across the Caucasus and Central Asia have been left with legacy stocks of equipment, or have continued to purchase from Russian suppliers. Centres of production of police equipment in the Eurasian region are, however, starting to develop. This is, in part, due to a drive to develop local manufacturing capabilities in states. For example, a Georgian state-controlled entity is currently offering for sale a range of police equipment including a 40-mm grenade launcher, police batons, shields and smoke rounds (see figure 4.1). Since 2005 Azerbaijan has upgraded its Soviet-era defence manufacturing facilities, with a view to becoming more self-sufficient in armaments production and offering equipment for sale on the international market.87 One of the factories that has been refurbished is currently producing 12-gauge projectile kinetic-impact ammunition (see figure 4.2),88 as well as larger (38mm ‘tear gas smoke’) cartridges.89 87 ‘Azerbaijan self-sufficient in ammunition’, News.az, 17 Dec. 2010, <http://news.az/articles/ politics/28511>.
88 Information held by Omega Research Foundation. 89 Ministry of Defence Industry of Azerbaijan Republic, ‘Tear gas smoke cartridge “38P-CSS”, brochure, 2014, <https://www.smallarmsreview.com/archive/pdfdmp_1.cfm?docid=4328_066.pdf>.