Belarus Defines the Procedure for the Turnover of Weapons for Their Manufacturers

On 9 August 2019, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko signed Decree No. 302 ‘On the turnover of weapons and ammunition in organisations producing them’.
The document approves the regulation of the procedure on the turnover of weapons and ammunition in organisations producing them. The regulation states that “some weapons and ammunition are used by manufactures for the research, development, testing, manufacturing, upgrading and repair of arms, their components, ammunition and parts (components)”. Companies are also entitled to produce arms, to acquire ownership or on other legal grounds of weapons and ammunition for use in the technological process of their own products and (or) following sales, to transfer weapons and ammunition into the ownership of Belarus and operational control of state military units and paramilitary organisations without compensation.
At the same time, companies must ensure industrial safety, preservation and observation of rules for storage of weapons and ammunition, and constantly control the manufacturing and quality of products. Each unit of produced weapons and ammunition is subject to marking and accounting for the identification.
The document introduced a number of amendments and additions into the Belarusian President’s Decrees. In particular, the Regulation on State Authority for Military Industry of the Republic of Belarus (SAMI), approved by Presidential Decree No. 602 of 8 December 2009 ‘On Some Issues of Activity of the Belarusian State Authority for Military Industry’, was modified. According to the adopted amendments, SAMI within its competence is tasked with regulating the turnover of weapons and ammunition in organisations producing them. A number of legal documents have been developed to regulate the practical implementation of the decree on the issues of accounting, storage and marketing of weapons and ammunition.