CZ 99 - A Good Pistol Developed in a Bad Time

When you hear “CZ”, the first thing that comes to mind is the Česká Zbrojovka factory in Czechia (Czech Republic), famous for their CZ pistols, Scorpion submachineguns, and Bren rifles that our own James Reese recently tested. But there was one more CZ, the Yugoslavian factory called Crvena Zastava (which means “Red Banner” in Serbian), which also used the “CZ” designation for some of their rifles and pistols, the most famous being CZ99.

It had a few good features for its time: fully ambidextrous, with mag release and decocker on both sides and decent magazine capacity. Compared with the two most popular pistols of that time: the Beretta M9 and SIG P226, the CZ 99 looked right at home.

And that is not an accident. According to the book “Designers and Infantry Weapons of Serbia 1804-2019” written by the most famous Serbian gun writer Branko Bogdanović, CZ 99 was developed specifically for the US market under some fascinating circumstances.

Have you ever heard of Sarkis Soghanalian? Before he died in 2011, the media called him the “Merchant of Death”, “World's largest private arms dealer” and "Cold War's largest arms merchant”. 

Some say the main character of the movie “Lord of War”, Yuri Orlov (played by Nicolas Cage) was inspired by none other than Sarkis Soghanalian.

In 1989, Sarkis Soghanalian visited the Crvena Zastava factory in Kraguevac, Central Serbia, which at the time was a part of Yugoslavia. A few days later he met with the chief design engineer of the factory Božidar Blagoevich, a talented design engineer who spent many years at the factory, leading the research and development team.

Sarkis Soghanalian offered Blagoevich to develop “the best pistol in the world” and he accepted the challenge. Blagoevich took inspiration from SIG P226 and Walther P88 and developed a new pistol in less than 6 months. Unlike SIG 226, CZ 99 had a decocker that also worked as a slide release and was fully ambidextrous.

Soghanalian insisted that the letters “CZ” must be used in the name of the pistol, hoping that an average American wouldn’t know the difference between Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. According to some sources, the pistol was supposed to be called CZ89, indicating the year when it was developed, but after someone mistakenly engraved 99 instead of 89, everyone decided that CZ99 sounded better.

On January 19, 1990, the prototypes of CZ 99 were showcased at the SHOT Show in Las Vegas. The project looked extremely promising - Yugoslavia was a neutral country that worked with East and West, which opened both the US civilian market and potential military orders in the Middle East, Africa, and Eastern European countries that were eager to switch from the Warsaw Pact calibers to standard NATO 9x19 ammunition.

The future of CZ 99 seemed bright, so it was relatively easy to gather enough investment for mass production of the new pistol. It required a total of 10 million dollars.

Sarkis Soghanalian contributed 2 million USD, two more million came from the Ministry of Defense, two more came from the factory, and the last 4 million were loaned from the special foundation that supported exceptional projects.

With the money, the factory quickly bought the latest machines from Japan, Germany, and Yugoslavian manufacturers. In 1990, the first batch of 200 pistols was made using new equipment, and the Italian company MECGAR delivered the first magazines.

In 1991, the first year of production, the factory produced 20,000 pistols and made plans to manufacture 25,000 CZ99s every year.

Early production CZ99 on the range:

The TD Arms company had imported guns to the US, and CZ99s retailed at $275 ($300 for the version with wood grips). After the SHOT Show promotion, 51 police departments across the USA contacted the US importer and distributor expressing interest in buying the CZ 99. It seemed that the 10 million dollar investment would pay off without a hitch.

Unfortunately, the collapse of Yugoslavia and sanctions cut the country off from the most stable and lucrative arms market - the United States. Only after 2005, the embargo was lifted and CZ99 pistols returned to the US. But time went on, and the handgun that was up to date in 1990 could not take a big chunk of the market 15 years later.