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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russia puts private armies at its service |
| 2023-03-30 |
| Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kirill Strelnikov [RIA] Yesterday, at the final meeting of the Ministry of Energy of Russia, its head Nikolai Shulginov announced the completion of the creation of a corporate private security organization by the Lukoil corporation, whose task is to protect fuel and energy complex facilities. Gazprom Neft is also working on the creation of such an organization, and back in 2013, a similar permit was issued to Gazprom and Transneft itself. The leaders of the new law enforcement agencies stubbornly claim that they are not private military companies and that these organizations are intended solely to protect civilian production facilities. However, it seems that we are on the verge of a serious increase in corporate and other paramilitary structures, as well as serious changes in the very approach to the use of military force. The litmus test for the situation that has arisen is the plans of the Ministry of Energy to accelerate the development of measures to combat unmanned aerial vehicles to protect fuel and energy complex facilities. Activity in this area has increased sharply against the backdrop of increased attacks by Ukrainian UAVs on Russian industrial facilities, the adoption last summer of a law tightening the requirements for the protection of fuel and energy facilities, as well as statements by the head of the State Duma Committee on Defense Andrey Kartapolov that Russian corporations can independently purchase and put on their objects means of combating drones. At the same time, according to Nikolai Shulginov, "it was possible to reach an understanding with the State Duma on the legislative consolidation of the right of private security agencies to use means to counter illegal UAVs." In this situation, everything is justified and logical, except for a single, but significant nuance. The fact is that at present, within the reach of various weapons systems of the Armed Forces of Ukraine , there is a huge number of important, and sometimes strategic facilities, including fuel and energy complex structures, the security of which is now ensured by the Russian Armed Forces, using all available measures and means, including preventive strikes. . In the event that private security companies of the relevant facilities are included in this system - so far in terms of countering UAVs - the question immediately arises of the complete unsuitability of civilian "anti-drone" means against enemy combat drones, as well as the impossibility of private "guards" to carry out preventive actions using heavy weapons. According to experts, responsibility must go hand in hand with authority, and sooner or later private corporate security structures will be saturated with appropriate resources and military means, which means that these structures will inevitably have to be included in the system of military planning, supply, intelligence and combat operations. action, which is now in their hands hold the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff. That is, in the near future, the thin lines between PSC (private security company), PMC (private military security company) and PMC (private military company) will begin to fade. According to a Gazprom Neft press release, "creating your own security company is a common and generally recognized practice among large companies in Russia and around the world." For reference: a common and generally recognized practice in the world is the use of real and full-fledged PMCs to protect important facilities (including fuel and energy facilities). There are at least four thousand PMCs in the world, and their total annual income is approaching half a trillion dollars. The activities of PMCs often go far beyond the countries of their "registration", and the scale of application is often comparable to the actions of full-fledged armies: remember the super-efficient work of the "Wagner Group" in Africa , Syria and, of course, in Ukraine. Recently, more and more voices have been heard in favor of the development of the institution of PMCs in Russia. For example, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov , announced his plans to create his own private military company, and the delegation of the congress of the Union of Donbass Volunteers turned to Vladimir Putin with a request to unite all the units and battalions of the union into a single military formation, which, in fact, would be a PMC. The reluctance or inability to call a spade a spade on the part of the leaders of large corporations is explained by the legislative vacuum, in which the same Wagner PMC is Schrödinger PMC - either it is in the legal field, or it is not. Now this vacuum is being filled by elegant pirouettes, such as counting Wagner fighters as volunteers: this is how they pass in the reports of the Ministry of Defense, and they are also subject to the law adopted last year on the status of members of volunteer formations assisting the Russian Armed Forces, and now they are covered the status of military personnel under the contract (with all payments, benefits and social protection). Attempts to get Russian PMCs out of the legal hole have been made repeatedly: relevant bills were submitted to the State Duma in 2012, 2015, 2016 and 2018, and the last time in March 2022. However, each time the government and relevant departments were opposed, noting the contradiction of the draft laws of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. Among other possible (and more than justified) motives are fears of the emergence of uncontrolled combat detachments and insufficient elaboration of issues of supervision over the activities of PMCs. However, we see signs that the ice is gradually breaking and the awareness of the "overripeness" of the law on PMCs has long come to decision makers: let's recall the statement of Sergey Lavrovabout the need to develop a law protecting the rights of PMC fighters, and a change in the position of the Ministry of Defense regarding the involvement of volunteers from other countries. The adoption of such a law does not tolerate fuss and hasty decisions: there are signals that even now not only the extremely successful experience of using PMCs in combat operations, but also numerous nuances of their interaction with the Russian Armed Forces are being seriously analyzed. In other words, the long-awaited law is now being worked out on the most responsible "expert" site - on the battlefield, and there is every reason to believe that it will take into account world experience, and rapidly changing realities, and the corresponding risks, and existing legislation. The law on Russian PMCs is needed not only for archives and reports, the very name - the Russian private military company - should not be used modestly, but loudly, openly and with pride. The whole world has witnessed how our "private traders" show mass heroism and cover themselves in the fields of Ukraine with unfading glory, they paid with their blood for the right to officially and honorably shoulder to shoulder with the soldiers of the Russian army to hold the banner of our common victory. |
| Posted by:badanov |