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 issue of creating a system of private military companies (PMCs) in Russia was discussed.
V. Putin believes that Russian PMCs will be able to take on not only the functions of protecting facilities and training foreign military units, but also to implement the plans of the Russian state to protect its national interests on the territory of foreign states.
Currently, there are more than a hundred PMCs in the world, most of which are registered in the United States, France and Great Britain. Their scope ranges from consulting services in the field of security, object protection, material and military supplies, training of power units to developments in the field of the latest weapons. They work under contracts concluded with major corporations, governments and power ministries. PMCs successfully implement special tasks, allowing their governments to stay away from the results of operations.
Now the draft normative legal act governing the formation and functioning of Russian PMCs has been submitted for consideration.
Of course, this draft legislative act will have to go through the approval of the State Duma committees and power ministries. There is no doubt that many articles of the document will cause a conflict of interest between PMCs and existing structures. For example, it is proposed that PMCs will have the rights and status of military-political cooperation. This provision could provoke a protest from Rosoboronexport, which today is a monopoly in the supply of Russian arms for export. Also, simultaneously with the adoption of this law, it is necessary to amend the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: Article 208 provides that the creation of an armed unit is a criminal offense. Also, when creating a market for the services of private military companies in Russia, it will be necessary to amend other legislative acts, for example, the law on security activities.
It should be noted that regardless of the fact that there are a huge number of companies in Russia that want to do this business, the bureaucratic machine significantly slows down the process of domestic PMCs entering the international level. Officials fear that the creation of Russian PMCs will lead to the emergence of trained and well-armed people in the country, independent of the state machine.
Currently, the functioning of PMCs is not only a profitable business, but also an effective instrument of the state's foreign policy. The presence of PMCs in the "hot spots" of the planet will expand the spheres of influence of Russia. It will provide the country with new allies, will allow it 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 does not use the services of PMCs abroad. Russian businesses operating in unstable world regions rarely use PMC services. Although, having domestic PMCs, Russia gets the opportunity to protect its interests and business on the territory of foreign states, especially those that have a difficult military-economic-political situation. PMCs can take over the protection of facilities and protect the life of Russian specialists on the territory of third countries, as well as train local law enforcement forces, conduct mine clearance and disposal of ammunition, and repel an attack by bandit formations.
It should be noted that there are Russian companies analogous to PMCs, but they are very few in number. Indeed, in the global market for PMC services, the main customers are government agencies (for example, in the United States it is the State Department and the 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 conclude contracts with foreign PMCs.
Russian specialists with the necessary professional knowledge and level work in American-British PMCs (as a rule, their wages are several times lower than that of citizens of these countries).
Domestic companies such as Ferax, RSB-Group, Tiger Top Rent Security, Redut-Antiterror, and Antiterror-Oryol worked quite successfully on the PMC market (by Russian standards). They worked in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Sri Lanka and other difficult world regions.
In the Gulf of Aden, a Russian company is effectively working, which fulfills orders of shipowners for the protection of ships.
On the territory of Russia, there are rather powerful foreign PMCs (in terms of resources, experience, number of professional employees). The number of fighters for some reaches 450 people. Their activities on the territory of Russia are extremely dangerous, since, under contracts, they carry out tasks of NATO and their allies. For example, the American-British PMC ArmorGroup managed to become a member of the Russian Engineering Union, and, therefore, gained access to the country's strategic industry. Group 4 Falck has formed a whole network of its divisions in the post-Soviet space. The PMC Group 4 Securitas Uzbekistan, located in Central Asia, has the ability to carry out operations against Russia, using the Transcaucasian and Central Asian bridgeheads. The office of the largest foreign PMC (Raytheon) is located in the center of Moscow, the customer of which is the Pentagon.
But, despite the fact that the global market for PMC services has already formed, Russian companies still have a niche that they can occupy.
Perhaps the largest Russian companies operating in the external market will create their own PMCs within their own structures.
Another option: the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan, dissatisfied with the work of American private companies, can conclude contracts with Russian companies. Moreover, Russian groups for escorting cargo on the territory of Iran have experience since 2005. Even such a seemingly simple task as cargo transportation is fraught with danger: the territory is controlled by various bandit groups, problems with the coalition forces deployed in Iraq are possible, it is also vital to know and observe 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 carried out in “hot spots”. Therefore, today it is necessary to consolidate this right at the legislative level.
A UN working group has prepared a draft convention on the regulation of the activities of private military companies. It is expected to be considered by the Human Rights Council in September 2012. If Russia ratifies this convention, domestic PMCs will be able to work according to international rules.
