The news was announced by the government of Udmurtia, the republic East of Moscow where the Kalashnikov arms factory is based. "In the 95th year of his life, after a long and serious illness, the outstanding small arms designer Mikhail Timofeevich Kalashnikov has died," the regional governor's press service said in a statement. Vladimir Putin expressed "deep condolences to the family and friends of Mikhail Kalashnikov following his death," the Kremlin said in a brief statement on Monday evening. The 1947 model Kalashnikov Automatic, universally known by its initials: AK-47 sold at least 70 million Kalashnikovs in various variants. The weapon is still standard issue for more than 100 countries" armies. Mr Kalashnikov, who continued to work at the Izhevsk arms factory almost up to his death, always said he was proud of his invention. Mikhail Kalashnikov poses for a picture with a AK-47 (AP) But he did once say he blamed the Nazis for making him a gun designer and that he would rather have invented something "like a lawnmower." A Hero of the Russian Federation, twice Hero of Soviet Labour, a three-time recipient of the Order of Lening, Mr Kalashnikov, was lionised at home both by the media and politicians, including Mr Putin, keen to cash in on what has been described as "Russia's most recognisable brand." In recent years he had been a regular attendee at Russian arms fares, where he was used as a mascot to promote the brand. One reason for the weapon's ubiquitous presence in almost every conflict in the past 50 years was the Soviet Union's policy of licensing production to friendly countries during the Cold War. With the fall of the Soviet Union, allies became unwelcome commercial competitors, and Russia has in the past threatened to sue former Soviet allies who continue to produce what Moscow has argued are inferior imitations. About half of the Kalashnikov rifles in circulation today are thought to be counterfeit. The weapon has fallen on hard times at home, with the Russian Interior Ministry abandoning the Kalashnikov for police in 2008, and the Ministry of Defence following suit two years later.