Will there be private military companies in Russia?
In April 2012, at a meeting of the State Duma, when hearing the report of the Prime Minister on the results of the work of the Government, the question of creating a system of private military companies in Russia (PMCs) was discussed.
V. Putin believes that PMCs of Russia will be able to assume not only the functions of guarding facilities and training foreign military units, but also implement the plans of the Russian state to protect its national interests in foreign countries.
Currently in the world there are more than one hundred PMCs, most of which are registered in the United States, France and the United Kingdom. The scope of their actions from consulting services in the field of security, protection of facilities, material and military supplies, training of power units to developments in the field of modern weapons. They work under contracts concluded with major corporations, governments, and power ministries. PMCs successfully implement special tasks, allowing governments of their countries to stay away from the results of operations.
Now the draft regulatory act governing the formation and operation of Russian PMCs has been submitted for consideration.
Of course, this draft legislative act is to be coordinated by the committees of the State Duma and the power ministries. There is no doubt that many articles of the document will cause a conflict of interest between the PMCs and already existing structures. For example, it is proposed that PMCs will have the rights and status of military-political cooperation. This situation may cause protest from Rosoboronexport, which today is a monopolist in the supply of Russian weapons for export. Also simultaneously with the adoption of this law, it is necessary to make changes to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: article 208 provides that the creation of an armed unit is a criminal offense. Also, when creating the market for services of private military companies in Russia, it will be necessary to make changes in other legislative acts, for example, in the law on security activities.
It should be noted that regardless of the fact that in Russia there are a huge number of companies that wish to engage in this business, the bureaucratic machine significantly slows down the process of entry of domestic PMCs to the international level. Officials fear that the creation of Russian PMCs will lead to the emergence in the country of trained and well-armed people, independent of the state machine.
At present, the functioning of PMCs is not only a profitable business, but also an effective tool of the state’s foreign policy. The presence of PMCs in the "hot spots" of the planet will expand the sphere of influence of Russia. It will provide the country with new allies, will allow to receive interesting intelligence and diplomatic information, which, ultimately, will create weight for Russia in the world community.
Today, Russia is one of the countries that do not use the services of PMCs abroad. Russian business operating in unstable regions of the world rarely uses PMC services. Although, having domestic PMCs, Russia gets the opportunity to protect its interests and business in the territory of foreign countries, especially those that have a difficult military, economic and political situation. PMCs can take over the protection of facilities and the protection of the life of Russian specialists on the territory of third countries, as well as engage in training local law enforcement forces, demining and disposing of ammunition, and repelling the attack of bandit formations.
It should be noted that Russian companies-analogues of PMCs exist, but they are very few in number. After all, in the world market of PMC services, the main customers are government agencies (for example, in the USA it is the Department of State and Command), transnational corporations and international organizations. It is clear that Russian PMCs also do not have to rely on contracts with American customers. Unfortunately, even Russian companies, such as Lukoil, prefer to enter into contracts with foreign PMCs.
Russian specialists, possessing the necessary professional knowledge and level, work in the US-British PMCs (as a rule, the payment for their work is several times lower than that of the citizens of these countries).
The domestic companies “Feraks”, “RSB-Group”, “Tiger Top Rent Security”, “Redut-Antiterror”, “Antiterror-Orel” worked on the PMC market quite successfully (by Russian standards). They worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Sri Lanka and in other difficult world regions.
A Russian company is effectively operating in the Gulf of Aden, which carries out shipowners' orders for the protection of ships.
On the territory of Russia, there are quite powerful (in terms of resources, experience, number of professional employees) foreign PMCs. The number of fighters in some, reaches 450 people. Their activities on the territory of Russia are extremely dangerous, since, under contracts, they carry out the tasks of NATO and their allies. For example, the American-British PMC ArmorGroup managed to become part of the Russian Engineering Union, and, therefore, gained access to the country's strategic industry. The company Group 4 Falck has formed in the post-Soviet space a network of its units. Hosted in Central Asia, PMC Group 4 Securitas Uzbekistan has the ability to conduct operations against Russia, using the Transcaucasian and Central Asian springboards. In the center of Moscow is the office of the largest foreign PMC (Raytheon), the customer of which is the Pentagon.
But, despite the fact that the world market of PMC services has already been formed, Russian companies still have a niche that they can occupy.
Perhaps the largest Russian companies operating in the foreign market will create their PMCs within their own structures.
Another option: the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan, dissatisfied with the work of American private companies, may conclude contracts with Russian companies. Moreover, the experience of the Russian cargo escort groups on the territory of Iran has been available since 2005. Even such a seemingly simple task, such as cargo transportation, is fraught with danger: various gangster groups control the territory, problems with coalition forces deployed in Iraq are possible, it is also vital to know and comply with local customs and laws.
It is known that many veterans from the cities of the Urals (Yekaterinburg, Perm, Kurgan, Orenburg, Chelyabinsk) have agreements with partners from other countries on the participation of Russian specialists in operations conducted in “hot spots”. Therefore, today it is necessary to secure this right at the legislative level.
The UN working group has prepared a draft convention on the regulation of private military companies. It is expected that in September 2012, it will be reviewed by the Human Rights Council. In case of ratification of this convention by Russia, domestic PMCs will have the opportunity to work according to international rules.
Materials used:
http://www.rosbalt.ru/business/2012/05/31/986974.html
http://nnm.ru/blogs/broken_1/chastnye-voennye-kompanii-v-rossii-3/
http://maramus.livejournal.com/17646.html
http://topwar.ru/12400-naemniki-vsegda-v-cene.html
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