Private military companies: exporting aggression
359 Article. Mercenary
1. The recruitment, training, financing or other material support of a mercenary, as well as his use in an armed conflict or hostilities, shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of four to eight years, with or without restraint of liberty for a term of up to two years.
2. The same acts committed by a person using his official position or in relation to a minor shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of seven to fifteen years with a fine in the amount of up to five hundred thousand rubles or in the amount of wages or other income convicted for a period of up to three years either without it and with restriction of liberty for a period of one to two years, or without it.
3. Participation of a mercenary in an armed conflict or hostilities is punishable by imprisonment for a term of three to seven years, with or without restraint of liberty for a term of up to one year.
A mercenary is a person who acts for the purpose of receiving material compensation and who is not a citizen of a state participating in an armed conflict or hostilities, who does not reside permanently in its territory, and who is not a person who is sent to perform official duties.
There are people - men and sometimes women - with an increased tendency to violence. Sometimes they go to serve in state structures - landing troops, special forces, where their inclinations and abilities can be used for the good of the state. Sometimes they are incorporated into professional sports - power martial arts, fights without rules.
In this case, most often everything ends well. A person takes his place in life, receives his due reward, uses his inclinations and abilities where they are useful. However, there are not enough vacancies for special forces and athletes for everyone: in the modern army, more technical specialists are required - operators of weapons complexes, rather than "Vikings".
As a result, a huge layer of people takes out their negative qualities on others, goes deliberately or accidentally into the criminal environment, destroying society from the inside and forcing the state to spend funds on their neutralization and maintenance (unfortunately, due to the prohibition of the death penalty, it will not be possible to limit ourselves only to neutralization).
Violent crimes are one of the most significant problems of modern Russia - according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2020 more than 20 people died from criminal encroachments, over 000 were seriously injured.
In multinational Russia, there are entire regions, whose population is not very inclined to work, but on the other hand, it is extremely belligerent. These regions, as a rule, are subsidized.
Why not give them the opportunity to earn extra money by their own aggression on a legal basis?
Is Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation really necessary?
After all, what difference does it make to a state what its citizens are doing abroad?
Russia has sheltered millions of guest workers who take out money from our country, weakening the budget of Russia, and in return they bring the infection (vaccinations are no longer done there - the paradise of anti-vaccines) and crime (after all, the streets of revenge are not going to us).
So why not let your citizens earn money abroad and bring money home?
What negative consequences does the participation of Russian citizens in military conflicts abroad have for our country?
The criminalization of the mercenary profession only deprives the budget of tax revenues, moreover, in the form of freely convertible monetary units.
At the same time, international law does not prohibit mercenary:
The definition of a mercenary is formulated in Art. 47 (2) of the first Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions, signed in 1977.
A mercenary is a person who:
- specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;
- actually takes a direct part in hostilities;
- takes part in hostilities, guided mainly by a desire to obtain personal gain, and to whom, in fact, a party or on behalf of a party to the conflict has promised material reward that significantly exceeds the remuneration promised or paid to combatants of the same rank and functions included in the personal the composition of the armed forces of a given side;
- is neither a citizen of a party to the conflict, nor a person permanently residing in the territory controlled by a party to the conflict;
- is not included in the personnel of the armed forces of a party to the conflict;
- is not sent by a state that is not a party to the conflict to perform duties as a member of its armed forces.
By removing the article on the prohibition of mercenarism, the state will allow a significant part of the population to earn money legally, in fact, to carry out the "export of aggression" outside its borders.
But the main task of repealing Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is the legalization of the activities of private military companies (PMCs) in Russia.
Private military companies
The end of the XNUMXth century - the beginning of the XNUMXst century is the heyday of a new format of the armed forces (AF) - private military companies. Humanity has been familiar with mercenaries for a long time, their services were actively used at all times, there were whole detachments of organized mercenaries who were ready to fight for whoever pays.
In a certain historical During the period, PMCs, which at that time did not have this name, seemed to have practically disappeared from the scene - huge army of draft and contract type came out on top. Nevertheless, groups of mercenaries were active throughout the world, often changing it much more than the armies of the great powers.
In addition, it turned out that, despite all their might, the state armed forces have certain shortcomings - they are not flexible enough, constrained by national and international laws, regulations, their actions, and especially losses, are riveted by the attention of society and the press.
Private military companies gained prominence after the emergence of one of the most controversial PMCs - the American company Blackwater, founded in 1997 by former commando Eric Prince and shooting coach El Clark.
In the face of its branch Blackwater Security Consulting, this PMC actively participated in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, earning an ambiguous reputation there. In 2009, Blackwater PMC was renamed XeServices LLC, and then in 2010 - Academi.
Blackwater logos, XeServices LLC, Academi
At the same time, the British Watch Guard International (WGI), created in 1967 by SAS (Special Airborne Service) veterans David Stirling and John Woodhouse, is considered to be the official first private military company.
It is believed that PMCs are much more expensive than professional armies. For example, a US military soldier earns about $ 150-200 a day, while a Blackwater / Academi mercenary costs about $ 1 a day.
In reality, everything is much more complicated: in the Armed Forces, the activities of soldiers are insured - in case of injury, they receive significant payments (serious PMCs now also insure their specialists, but it can be assumed that this is not always done)... Members of the armed forces often have various benefits, including early retirement, which can be attributed to indirect costs. The state bears the costs of equipping a serviceman and his training.
Do not forget that in PMCs most often specialists already work with experience, while in the Armed Forces a soldier must first be trained, and this is expensive and takes a lot of time. Even the direct costs of a professional fighter can exceed the indicated $ 150-200 per day, what can we say about everything else.
Of course, PMCs do not replace professional armies, but they complement them extremely effectively.
The tasks most frequently solved by PMCs include (but are not limited to):
- direct participation in hostilities;
- conducting special operations, including obtaining intelligence information;
- aviation intelligence service;
- ensuring the safety and security of infrastructure facilities;
- ensuring the protection of state structures;
- ensuring the safety of transportation, escorting convoys, protecting maritime navigation and sea vessels;
- training of military personnel, police and other power structures;
- rear supply of troops;
- maintaining the functioning of communication and control systems, points and control centers;
- services of military analysts;
- demining and destruction of unexploded ordnance.
Some sources associate PMCs with special units - special forces. In reality, depending on the type of activity of PMCs, they can be attributed to special forces, analysts, professional security guards, logisticians, and so on.
In addition to Blackwater / XeServices LLC / Academi, many other PMCs have appeared - British G4S, Erinys International and Aegis Defense Services, American FDG Corp, MRPI, the largest American PMC DynCorp, British-American Northbridge Services Group - and this is just a small part.
In Russia, PMCs also exist, and it is believed that they operate quite effectively around the world, including in Syria, the Donbass and in the Luhansk region.
The most famous Russian PMCs today are:
- PMC "Wagner";
- "Slavic Corps" (possibly one of the subdivisions of Wagner PMC);
- "Redoubt-Antiterror";
- "Ferrax";
- "RSB-Group";
- PMC FDG Corp.
Like mercenarism, the activities of PMCs in Russia are officially prohibited, thanks to the same article 359 of the Criminal Code, therefore Russian PMCs are registered as private security companies (PSC). They can also have foreign branches and operate under the flags of other states.
In 2016, attempts to legalize PMCs came across government resistance, which referred to part 5 of Article 13 of the Russian Constitution:
Of course, this argument is far-fetched - PMCs fall under this clause only if they initially set themselves the goal of changing the foundations of the constitutional order, which sounds absolutely absurd: is it really just that they will write in the Charter?
So, under Part 5 of Art. 13 you can pull up anything: even a circle of young technicians, even a society of fishing lovers - you never know why they are going? And what are they doing there, maybe they are also plotting something against the foundations of the constitutional order?
In 2018, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov again proposed to return to the discussion of the issue of legalizing Russian PMCs in order to provide a legal framework protecting Russian PMC employees. Obviously, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, S.V. Lavrov is quite well aware of the activities of Russian and foreign PMCs and the effectiveness of their use.
It should be understood that the legalization of PMCs does not imply (should not imply) the disclosure of the activities of such companies abroad - PMC specialists are not required to wear military uniforms or other signs of belonging to a particular structure, if this is required by the specifics of the contract and the work performed.
Why do we need private military companies?
They will transform the unorganized mercenary market into an organized one.
By themselves, "wild geese" can earn money abroad, but they are unlikely to pay taxes, and it is not a fact that they will bring this money into the country and will not leave it in foreign accounts.
Unorganized mercenaries will defend economic and political interests, but whose interests will they be - the USA, Great Britain, France?
How to ensure that their activities are not directed against the interests of the Russian Federation?
The organization of "wild geese" under the auspices of Russian PMCs will give the greatest efficiency for all parties - Russian mercenaries, Russian companies and the state.
Now there is a lot of talk about the fact that defense enterprises should be reorganized into a civilian direction - "forging swords into plowshares." However, this will not be easy - the enterprises of the military-industrial complex (MIC) are simply not optimized to produce refrigerators and pans.
Meanwhile the market weapons Is one of the few markets that does not shrink, but grows continuously.
Considering the significant militarization of our industry, which was formed back in the days of the USSR, it is much more profitable to stimulate the defense industry enterprises to seize an increasingly large part of the world arms market - there is room for development here.
It is possible and necessary to "squeeze out" the maximum possible share of the arms market from the USA, France, China, Turkey and other countries, not to let new players into it, to squeeze out old ones.
And PMCs can contribute to this.
PMCs and OPK
How are private military companies and enterprises of the military-industrial complex connected?
Currently, nothing.
First, PMCs are not officially allowed in Russia.
Secondly, only the state power structures of the Russian Federation can initiate the development of weapons and armaments. But the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, with all its desire, will not be able to cover and pay for many interesting concepts and developments - there simply will not be enough money. And not all of them are necessary for the armed forces.
At the same time, the specifics of PMCs may require the development of weapons that the RF Armed Forces do not really need, at least at first glance.
Light attack aircraft are not of interest to the RF Ministry of Defense, but they may be of interest to PMCs, since they are much cheaper to acquire and operate, and then they can be exported to other countries with a limited defense budget
The tasks solved by PMCs are specific.
For example, the lack of aviation support, the opposition of numerically larger enemy groups, action in the face of opposition from several centers of power.
In Syria, for example, the United States and NATO, Israel, Russia, Turkey and many other countries operate simultaneously. Not to mention dozens, if not hundreds, of independent armed groups.
Only the most effective weapons and equipment will help to survive and ensure victory in this situation.
It is necessary not only to legalize PMCs, but also to provide them with the opportunity to initiate and pay for the development of weapons for enterprises of the Russian military-industrial complex.
PMCs can be much less inert and much more proactive than MOs, since they will not be constrained by charters, regulations and responsibility for public money - this is just business, nothing personal.
At the same time, the RF Ministry of Defense can use the results of developments ordered by PMCs in their own interests.
Conclusions
PMCs can become one of the most effective tools for the economy and foreign policy of the Russian Federation.
The systematic work of PMCs, the armed forces and law enforcement agencies will make it possible to identify those who are suitable for work in PMCs and "export" their propensity for violence outside the territory of the Russian Federation, significantly reducing the level of violent crimes on the territory of the Russian Federation (of course, we are not talking about rapists, pedophiles and other scum, who should have only one way - to the gallows or to the execution chamber with sawdust on the floor).
For the formation and development of PMCs, it is necessary to completely abolish or radically amend article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
It is necessary to provide PMCs with the opportunity to initiate the development and acquisition of weapons and weapons (within reasonable limits, we are not talking about delegating to PMCs the authority to create strategic weapons).
PMCs will not be replaced, but will effectively supplement the armed forces of the Russian Federationsolving specific tasks to protect national political and economic interests.
In the future, PMCs will be able to solve complex tasks of defense or attack within entire states and even regions.
PS
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Moscow that she did not need to send PMC Wagner to Mali. Such interference in the internal affairs of this African country threatens "serious consequences."
Well, if already now "non-existent" Russian PMCs are causing such a resonance in the international arena, then what will happen if this direction receives the active support of the state?
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