I own a WASR-22 that was manufactured in 2005 and made in Cugir, Romania at the same factory as all WASR models and military AK rifles. 2005 was the first year that Century Arms imported them as a WASR-22 model. Prior to that they were imported as model AKT-98. Models of the AKT-98 and WASR-22 came in with fixed buttstocks, wire side-folding buttstocks, or PSL/FPK style thumb-hole buttstocks and they even imported RPK models with longer barrels and club-foot buttstocks. In the more recent years the Romanian .22LR AKs have been imported by Chiappa as a model RAK-22 and are made in Nova Modul, Romania instead of the Cugir, Romania factory. There were some other interim AK .22LR variants imported from Romania but nothing particularly noteworthy or in any significant numbers.
The AKT-98 and WASR-22 will accept either factory metal (AKT-98) or polymer (WASR-22) magazines along with the aftermarket Black Dog 10 and 30 round magazines. Unfortunately the Chiappa imported RAK-22s take their own proprietary magazines which only come in a 10-round configuration and can be difficult to find separately at times even when the rifles are available. The AKT-98 and WASR-22 models also have a side optic mounting rail whereas the RAK-22 does not which I find to be another big negative for the Chiappa rifle.
The Chiappa imported RAK-22 rifles do have a few small “potential function improvements” made to them over the earlier imports but due to the proprietary magazine compatibility/availability/capacity issue, no optic mounting rail, and the different factory for their manufacture I personally do not think the RAK-22s are as nice overall or even have the same value. I own a WASR-22 so I may be biased in my opinion but for the most part people that own AKT-98/WASR-22s or RAK-22s like them either way regardless of their particular pros or cons.
I am very pleased with the build quality and function of mine. Spare parts can be hard to find so if you own one buy parts when you see them available.
Below is my WASR-22, it has an extremely low serial number and is actually only the 30th “WASR-22” model imported into the U.S. out approximately 600 total from 2005 until around 2009. I believe a little less then 1,000 total AKT-98 models were imported into the U.S. in the prior years ending in 2004. I imagine that there have been thousands of Chiappa RAK-22 models imported in the more recent years with AKs gaining so much popularity over the last decade.
This is mine as imported