First we should discuss the name Baikal. The name is a trademark and is owned by Izhevsk Mechanisky Zavod or for short IMZ. During the USSR times, sporting guns exported from Russia were called Baikal and they were made by different factories. A factory in Russia in the USSR times was called a Zavod (or home of the people). Literally they were the home of the people the Zavod supplied: work, social events, housing, income, medicial, cultural, education, etc. Today this is gone. The Zavod is like a USA factory and today supplies work and some social things like volley ball games or contests.
You may ask how did EAA come to work with IMZ? Simple, as an engineer I saw products with a foundation that were correct. The first meetings were hard and I could write a book on the experiences. Today Baikal products are technically correct and configured mostly for the USA customers taste and are safe or safer than our competition's products. Yes we are not as pretty as some, but we say looks are only skin deep.
Want a gun to hunt or use, buy a Baikal, want a gun to hang on the wall and look at, buy the competition.
As you know today, Baikal (IMZ) is working with Remington to build the Spartan line. This working relationship complements IMZ and Remington and further proves my original thoughts that IMZ product were technically correct. To be approved to carry the Remington logo, each model must go through a series of destructive and nondestructive test. The IMZ products passed the tests and in some cases surprised the testers and IMZ engineers.
An example of how far IMZ has come is the MP153, a reasonably priced semi- auto that runs 3.5" to 2.75" 12ga. Let's just say we did this project in record time and used engineers around the world. Had we not had e-mail we could have never accomplished this project in such a short time.
In 2005 you will see many new items from IMZ including the MP221 or MR221 and the IZH18MH or IZH18MN. These two guns took a treaty amendment between the USA and Russia.
Thank you to all the Baikal fans.
(Letter from Keith B. - President of EAA)