The price increase is fed by panic buyers. Blame the opportunists, not the state department or the president. Fact is that most AK imported into this country do not come from Russia or The Kalishnikov group anyway. It's just fear mongers trying to take advantage of the newest "crisis" and make more profit. If someone claims that the Arsenal or Red Jacket AK they are trying to sell you is no longer available, tell them to go to hell. Most of the better AK builds are built on Bulgarian and Romanian AK recievers.
The AKs are just caught up in the huge net of the newest round of sanctions against Russia for the Ukrainian situation.
Everyone just needs to calm down, not everything is a conspiracy!!