A photo from the scene shows the Russian leader pulling the rifle out of a suitcase and Sisi rubbing his hands together with a big smile. After the ceremony of handing over one of the deadliest weapons of all time, the two left for a romantic dinner.
Russia, the world's second-largest arms exporter, aims to grab a larger slice of the Egyptian arms market, and the recent gift of the Kalashnikov is a clear foreshadowing of a probable upcoming arms purchase plan. Prior to Putin's visit, the Egyptian media claimed that the two countries will sign a $3-billion deal for Moscow to supply armament.
Putin's official two-day trip is the first in a decade to Egypt and comes after a 2011 popular uprising that ousted ex-strongman Hosni Mubarak, who the Russian leader met in his previous visit in 2005.
Putin is a key non-Arab backer of Sissi who headed the bloody military coup in 2013 that overthrew Egypt's first democratically elected President Mohammad Morsi. Hundreds of Morsi's supporters have been killed and thousands imprisoned in a crackdown since his ouster.
Sissi himself visited Russia soon after ousting Morsi as defense minister amid deteriorating relations with Washington, and followed it up with another trip in August 2014 as president. At their meeting last summer at Putin's summer residence in Sochi, the two discussed Russia supplying weapons to Egypt, which is fighting an insurgency on the Sinai Peninsula that has killed scores of policemen and soldiers.
