Warum Putins Waffen Großbritannien überschwemmen werden

The attempted assassination of a Russian general has highlighted the wider threat of weapons haemorrhaging from the Ukraine war.

On Friday morning, Lieutenant General Vladimir Alexeyev was [shot three times by a gunman](https://inews.co.uk/news/world/top-russian-general-shot-several-times-moscow-4218518?ico=in-line_link) when leaving for work.

The weapon, which was retrieved from the scene, was apparently a PB, a specialised version of the Makarov pistol with a built-in silencer. This is a relatively rare weapon, originally built for the KGB. When the Soviet Union disbanded at the end of 1991, stocks were left in the hands of the Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian intelligence agencies and special forces.

The working assumption is that this gun was bought on the black market, part of a growing number of weapons smuggled back from the [Ukraine war](https://inews.co.uk/topic/russia-ukraine-war?ico=in-line_link) by soldiers.

Gun ownership in Russia is highly regulated, but nonetheless, its underworld has never had trouble finding weapons: as of 2021, there were perhaps 10 million illegal guns in circulation.

Four years of war, though, have led to a massive increase not just in the number of weapons in the black market, but in their sophistication. Specialised firearms like the PB or the VSS silenced sniper rifle, the latest AK-12 assault rifle and even grenade launchers have started turning up on the streets.

Everyone cheers the fall of Russia, but we should be scared of what comes next. They are militarized, nuclear armed, and have a history of high criminality and gangsterism. It will not end well no matter how much Putin’s care sucks.