Russia's Izhevsk Airport takes name of legendary gunsmith Mikhail Kalashnikov

Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially named the international airport in Izhevsk, Udmurtia, after the weapons designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, according to a decree published on the portal of legal acts.

The decision followed a public vote that began in July 2025. Local figures in Udmurtia had proposed ten candidates alongside Kalashnikov. Among the leaders in the first round of voting were composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Andrei Deryabin, a statesman who oversaw the construction of the Izhevsk gun factory in 1807.

Mikhail Kalashnikov, a native of Izhevsk, already has a museum and exhibition complex, a technical university, and a defence-industrial concern in the city named after him.

The airport recently inaugurated a new passenger terminal on 20 September, and it has held international airport status since April 2023.

Earlier, the head of Udmurtia, Alexander Brechalov, announced that the airport would be named after Kalashnikov. The name was selected through a vote organised by the Public Chamber of the Republic.

By Tamilla Hasanova