IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation) in Russia is a huge success, and is showing tremendous growth with some 30 000 members. I can’t think of any region which could be larger, and there are now regular sponsored events.

The Russian World and European Champion Maria Gushchina uses a CZ Shadow 2, and CZ is a very popular brand in Russia. The CZ-75 is probably one of the most used handguns.

Maria is a great competitor, I met her at IWA and EHC2016 (European Handgun Championships) and she’s such a nice person and so fast and smooth during shooting. She finished 4:th overall i Production.

Due to international sanctions it is now very difficult, if not impossible, to import firearms from Europe to Russia. This includes the CZ.

This has started a need for Russian manufacturers to develop and produce their own handguns.

For instance Kalashnikov are releasing some upgrades.

At the Moscow International Exhibition  “ARMS & Hunting 2016” (29 September – 2 October) more signs of this surfaced.

A Moscow-based private company called RWTS Ltd. (Russian Weapon Technologies & Systems) has been created.

Their focus is to produce a CZ-75 clone with full compatibility with CZ accessories and magazines. The target market is practical sport shooting.

The new pistol is named “Soratnik” which is Russian for an “ally” or a “comrade-in-arms“.

The material is steel and the caliber is unsurprisingly 9×19 mm.

Soratnik is CNC machined, and by the looks from the pictures of the prototype the finish is a bit crude in places.

The trigger is DA/SA

It will be interesting to see how long time it takes for this handgun to get approval from IPSC into the Production list, together with the real CZs, Tanfoglios and Glocks. I think they need to produce at least 500 units to be called “Production”. The list is updated in April, every year.

The current list for IPSC Production can be found here.

Note the serial number: 0001.

The magwell has some flare, and there is a Picatinny rail in the front. The sight seems to feature a fiber optic and looks adjustable.

The magazine holds 18 rounds and is CZ compatible.

All pictures by Maxim Popenker.

Production is planned for 2017.

The price is said to be 50 000 Russian Rubles, which equates to just a little less than 800 USD.

By the looks of it RWTS have more models. This looks like a copy of a Feiwerkbau AW 93 (22 LR).