Private Security Company [ChOP]
Chastnoy Okhrannoy Predpriyatiye
Russian Mercenaries
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The number of private military companies active in Russia has continued to grow in recent years, boosted by the necessity of drafting soldiers to fight the war in Ukraine as well as the Kremlin’s willingness to make these shadow armies an instrument of Russian foreign policy. Dispossessed, cashiered, or otherwise failed military men form a pool of trained warriors. Officers, NCOs, or just charismatic privates who could not function in a traditional military environment, these men bring other warriors the rudiments of the military art - just enough to inspire faith and encourage folly in many cases, although the fittest of these men become the warrior chieftains or warlords. If there were no Russian mercenaries in Ukraine then this war would have been over long ago. Unconventional armed forces are rarely included in official casualty counts, thus reducing the political cost of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Russian billionaires and state structures form their own military companies. PMC Potok, Redut, Bokareva were among the names of new private Russian military companies, whose activities are very disliked by their pioneer, Yevgeny Prigozhin of PMC Wagner. Evgeny Prigozhin , the founder of PMC Wagner, accused the mercenaries of the oligarchs of lack of professionalism at the front, but in fact he is jealous of their large fees: he wants to take them for himself.
By April 2023 the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) indicated that competition between Russian private military companies (PMCs) was growing. in a video message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, soldiers of Potok (reportedly one of the three volunteer units funded by the Russian state energy company Gazprom) claimed that Gazprom officials told Potok members that they will sign contracts with the Russian Defence Ministry, but then they were forced to sign contracts with Redut PMC. One of the Potok fighters claimed that Gazprom has created two more units, Fakel (Torch) and Plamya (Flame), subordinated to the Russian Defence Ministry. The report also indicated that Potok reported mistreatment by Wagner fighters, who threatened to shoot Potok fighters if they moved away from the contact line.
The emergence of multiple "PMCs" created additional coordination complexities, including logistical challenges, a lack of clear command chains, and insufficient intelligence exchange and coordination.
The greatest, although not the only, contemporary source of military men who have degenerated into warriors is the former Soviet Union. Whether veterans of Afghanistan or simply officers who lost their positions in post-collapse cutbacks, Russian and other former-Soviet military men served as mercenaries or volunteers (often one and the same thing) in the moral wasteland of Yugoslavia and on multiple sides in conflicts throughout the former Soviet Union. These warriors were especially dangerous not only because their skills heighten the level of bloodshed, but also because they provided a nucleus of internationally available mercenaries. The Russian mercenaries who rent out their resentment over failed lives almost invariably seek to pattern themselves after Hollywood heroes, and even Somalia's warlords adorn themselves with Anglo nicknames.
The first Russian mercenaries were sent to Syria by an organization called Slavic Corps in 2013 -- 267 men, according to an investigation by the St. Petersburg website Fontanka.ru. Their official mission was to guard oil facilities and pipelines, but they were soon caught up in the country's civil war and suffered heavy losses. When the survivors returned to Moscow in October 2013, their leaders were arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for illegal mercenary activity.
Nonetheless, the idea of a role for mercenaries apparently took hold somewhere among the Russian authorities. In 2014, as Moscow was annexing Ukraine's Crimea region and stoking a separatist war in eastern Ukraine, a Soviet and Russian army officer named Dmitry Utkin and others began forming paramilitary units to fight in Ukraine's Donbas.
In Syria, a US airstrike in February 2018 reportedly killed at least 100 Russian mercenaries after a surprise assault on a US-held base in the province. Russian investigative journalist Maksim Borodin of Yekaterinburg died on April 15 of injuries sustained three days earlier when he fell from the window of his fifth-floor apartment. He wrote extensively about the deaths in February of Russian mercenaries fighting in Syria, identifying several fighters from the Urals city of Asbest who had been killed.
"ChOP" stands for "private security company". In the former Soviet Union, only employees of state structures could perform the functions of guards. With the transition to a market economy, the forms of ownership changed and, as a consequence, the need arose to create an institution for private protection. During the existence of private security structures, Russians all became related to the abbreviation "ChOP", it became familiar and understandable. But from January 1, 2010 the wording "Private Security Company" (ChOP) was replaced by another one - "Private Security Organization" ( PKO ). A security organization can be registered only as a limited liability company and can not carry out any other activity than a security company. As a given structure, limited liability companies (LLCs) may act if their charter lists activities related to ensuring the safety of life, property, health and other things. If the company chooses protection as its business, it is deprived of the opportunity to engage in any economic activity: security is the only activity.
Legislation divides detective and security activities. The two types of activities can be joined either by associations of private security companies and detective enterprises (which retain their isolation) or isolated enterprises (security services) created exclusively to ensure the safety of their founder. For security purposes, the following types of services are allowed: protection of life and health of citizens ; property owners, including when it is transported; design, installation and maintenance of fire and security alarm systems; consulting and preparation of recommendations to clients on issues of lawful protection against unlawful attacks; ensuring order in the places of mass events.
A security activity is understood as the provision on a contractual basis of licensed services aimed at protecting the interests of its customers. PSCs can provide the following types of services:
- protection of life and health of citizens;
- protection of various objects or private property, including during its transportation;
- protection of facilities with the implementation of works on the installation and maintenance of security equipment with an operational response to the signal information received from them;
- consulting activities on the issues of lawful protection against encroachments on private property or security;
- ensuring the safety of mass events ;
- organization of access mode at sites.
Employees of the security company are specialists who have professional training, confirmed by passing the qualification exam. They are issued with a certificate of a private security guard, only in the presence of which they can work. The guard works under an employment contract with a private security organization, so his activities are regulated by labor law. He gets his ID for only five years. Renewal of the certificate can be carried out only after further training. The guard in Russia can not be persons who are not citizens of the Russian Federation, under the age of 18 years, incompetent or with limited legal capacity. And also citizens who have diseases that interfere with security activities, persons who have been convicted, convicted of a crime, not tested, dismissed from the civil service.
The activities of security companies can only be licensed. Licensing is carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. The license is issued for 5 years, but it can be renewed. A package of documents for obtaining a license is considered within 60 days. In order for a private security company to obtain a license, it must meet certain requirements:
- There must be a written contract with each of the clients. The issued document must be in accordance with the legislation regulating security activities.
- The employees of the private security service should have the appropriate qualifications that meet the requirements of the legislation of our country. The level of training must be confirmed by the guard's certification.
- The PSC must comply with all requirements of the RF legal acts regulating the activity of security companies.
Even after obtaining a license, the state can monitor the activities of the PPP with a view to determining the compliance of this activity with legislation. The main criteria for all types of corporate clothing and footwear guards are its certain similarity with the army, practicality for service and a relatively low price. Stripes with the inscription "Guard", the name and the emblem of the organization are usually attached to uniforms. Employees of private security firms are entitled to use protective helmets of the I-III protection class and body armor of the IV protection class (in practice, only individual categories of guards provide personal protection equipment: collectors, rapid reaction team members, bodyguards ...). Types and models of weapons for private security guards, the procedure for the acquisition, accounting, storage and carrying of arms by them is regulated by the Government of the Russian Federation. In fact, the list of authorized service weapons is essentially limited and by tactical and technical characteristics is inferior to that of ordinary militia employees.
In fact, modern realities are such that executives hire personal protection to the widest circle of representatives of various fields of activity. Bodyguards are needed by owners of large businesses and small entrepreneurs, lawyers and judges, top managers and artists, as well as many other people whose lives and health can be endangered. In fact, it would be difficult to find the scope for which bodyguard services would be unclaimed. And the essence of this service is not to wait for emergencies, but in effective work to prevent them. The threat of danger from competitors, creditors, debtors and simply ill-wishers is often not a surprise, and truly professional bodyguard creates all the conditions to eliminate it at an early stage.
Bodyguards for hire are considered a true elite among security workers. As a rule, people of this profession are former employees of the FSB, the GRU, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other state structures. Therefore, all of our bodyguards are real aces of one's own business, having passed more than one combat mission. Such personal security guards are literally "worth their weight in gold," and they are recommended to friends and acquaintances. For each of them, features such as confidence, representativeness and comprehension are characteristic.
Russian law does not recognize the existence of private military companies, including Wagner, President Vladimir Putin told the newspaper Kommersant on Thursday, when asked about his recent meeting with commanders of the mutinous group. While attending a technology fair in Moscow, Putin was asked whether Wagner will continue operating as a combat formation. “Well, PMC Wagner does not exist,” Putin told the Kommersant correspondent. “We don’t have a law on private military companies. So it simply doesn’t exist.” The president clarified “The group exists, but legally it does not. It’s a separate issue, related to legalization, that needs to be taken up by the State Duma and the government. A complicated question.”
About a quarter of Russian PMCs operate solely in Ukraine, while a dozen are present in several countries around the world, particularly in Africa. Their role is simple: to defend the interests of their leaders and those of the Kremlin. In the same vein, Wagner’s model consists of seizing natural resources in exchange for combat missions, military training and intelligence. The number of PMCs could continue to grow, especially after the war in Ukraine ends. For the many Russians mobilised on the front lines, these private militias provide work opportunities and allow them to continue using the skills they learned on the job.
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