Arto Pulkki, Eastern Europe military expert and writer at Suomen Sotilas, emailed us the above photo of Igor ”Strelkov” Girkin, the infamous leader of the Donbass People’s Militia which occupy two of Ukraine’s eastern provinces.

Girkin’s choice of gun is interesting. It is the 1950s full-auto Stechkin APS machine pistol. Its bulky holster is made of wood and doubles as a stock. The pistol is chambered in either 9x19mm Luger/Parabellum or 9x18mm Makarov and the magazine holds 20 rounds. Relative to other machine pistols, it has a modest rate of fire of just 750 rounds per minutes. As someone who has fired the Glock 18C, which cycles at 1100-1200 rounds per minute, I can only think that a decreased rate of fire is a good thing.

Stechkin APS © Vitaly V. Kuzmin