Ariel,
Thank you so much for this valuable insight, which I clearly missed in my studies on Ethiopian weapons!!
I really had no idea there were Russians in there, and I guess assumed there was so much other nationality presence that such intervention by them was not viable. Clearly they had 'their hands in the cookie jar' in many places not well known.
Here in the US, in California and Western regions all the way to Alaska they loomed large in areas regarded as French, Spanish and British it would seem much in the same manner.
I really appreciate very much these kinds of responses, which illuminate things missed by my own research and probably others as well, and give the topic the proper perspective in a generous and gracious manner. Thank you again
.
Jim