How do the Russian's do it?

Yesterday, I made a bunch of bullet key chains for my Ukrainian friends out of Wolf 7.62x39 steel cased ammo by pulling the bullets and drilling out the primer sockets.
I learned something really interesting about Russian ammo.
I really hate having a primer go off on me while I am drilling out the primer socket, so when I do this with American ammo, I soak the inside of the shell in water to get the primer wet before popping it out.
However, you cannot pop burden primers out (that I know of) but I tried soaking them so that it would at least be dead by the time I drilled it out.
After the desperate measure of soaking my 3rd try in water for 10 minutes, I just gave up. 10 minutes soaking and the primers still go off as if I hadn't soaked them at all. A pain in the butt if you are making key chains, but a very good sign to those who intend to use the ammo in their guns which is what caught my interest.
I tried to figure out how and found that the insides of the shells were coated with some red oil, but the oil could be seen in the water while the shells were soaking indicating that it may have not been stationary. In any case, the oil is my best theory. Do any of you guys know how they do this?

Can't you just shoot them to get the brass?

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I have them for a gun that I have started but not finished building. It's a scratch build, so it's not like I can just pop it in to an AK chamber, lock the bolt on the back and fire.
Since I have spent most of my time on the frame, the slide is not ready for doing stuff like that.
I do not have any other gun chambered for 7.62x39 Russian.

I'm curious how you make cartridge keychains? I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I sure don't know how to do it.

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What I do is put the cartridge in a bullet puller. It's basically a hammer that you put the bullet in and smack the hammer against wood or a solid surface and the shock of the sudden impact causes the bullet to jolt out of the shell where it lands on a soft pad in the puller.
Then I remove the primer. This topic is a good source of info about doing that. I use a milling machine, but I only use it because it's a convenience. All you need is a vice and a hand drill.
Then I get these fishing things that I cannot recall the name of at the moment, flatten one end, bend the other and drop it in the shell. Then, I put a pencil in the shell and rub it around the rim which creates a line around the pencil showing how steep the pencil fits in to the shell. Then I use a dremmel to cut the pencil as far below the line as I want the bullet to seat. Then I put the pencil in the shell and case the bullet on over it. Then I widen out the circular ring from the fishing thing (which is now sticking out of the primer socket and clip a key ring around it.
DONE!

I think more then anything, this is encouragement to finish up the gun, which I have been lagging on and planned to have done a year ago.
Unfortunately, I have other priorities.