High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! AEK-971 is a Soviet / Russian selective fire assault rifle that was developed at the Kovrov Mechanical Plant (KMZ) by chief designer S.I. Koksharov in the 1980s. The primary model, AEK-971, uses the 5.45x39mm round fed from standard 30-round or larger magazines used by the AK-74 and similar weapons.