The Ministry of defence and deputies of the state Duma a draft law on private military companies. On Friday the Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on defense Franz Klintsevich ("United Russia"). "We need such a law, I'm sure we will approve it. But we need a very serious work, and above all – working with the Ministry of defence and the interior Ministry", – said the Klintsevich did not specify where the document may be submitted to the state Duma.
"Now we are discussing the issue of peacekeeping functions in Ukraine. It is known that private companies are often engaged for this work in most countries. There is a place for Russian companies"
According to the MP, the bill will be spelled out the different functions that may be performed by the PMC. "What private military company? To expand the powers of the assortment of weapons, arms and equipment," – said the MP.
He explained that a private military company can be a full range of military weapons. "And they can get some order to perform some tasks," – said Klintsevich.

The MP added that PMCs are widely used in international practice. "For example, in Afghanistan today there are slightly more than 140 thousand troops, but by the same bill a little more than 120 thousand people are private military companies and about 40 thousand represent security companies who serve to provide many things that at times maybe, not very well made by state structures", – said the Deputy.

Commenting on the initiative of the LDPR faction of the Pskov regional Assembly of deputies, Klintsevich said that their bill on PMCs must be taken at the Federal level. "This is not the competence of the faction of the regional Assembly of deputies. This should be regulated by Federal law, there are too many nuances", – said the Deputy.

We will remind, this week the LDPR faction of the Pskov regional Assembly of deputies has developed the draft Federal law "On private military companies". The deputies proposed to legalize the activities of non-state paramilitary organizations, aimed at protecting Russia's national interests abroad, as well as give them the right to possess military weapons. In the West, this system has long worked, in particular, those of military help to defend the interests of the new government in Kiev.

In the explanatory note to the bill States that "the events of the crisis in Ukraine, which is actively used to promote the interests of the interim government in Kiev, Western PMCs, clearly demonstrated the urgent need for the emergence of such an institution in Russia".

According to the authors of the document, "Russia has a huge potential of expansion into the market of private military services." Furthermore, such specialized commercial organization "could solve the tasks aimed at the realization of national interests, where the application of the regular armed forces is politically or legally difficult."

The developers of the document point out that the development of such organizations in Russia is hampered by the lack of a legal framework guaranteeing the legality of their activities (article of the criminal code of the Russian Federation about the organization of an illegal armed formation and mercenaries, as well as the current version of the law "On weapons").
MPs propose to entrust the function of licensing of such structures on the FSB. The basic personnel source of private military companies, in the opinion of the Pskov LDPR members should be veterans and pensioners of power departments. "It will allow to solve the tasks of ensuring their social protection and adaptation after the service without additional budget burden," – noted in the explanatory Memorandum.

In the world more than a hundred major PMCs and security companies (PSCS), primarily in the United States, Britain, France. In the scope of their activities is the protection of facilities, training of army and police units, consulting services in the field of security, supply and support of troops. Work of PMCs and PSCS on contracts with governments and defense ministries, as well as large multinational corporations. Several dozen such companies are now operating in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the spring of 2012, Vladimir Putin, who at that time held the post of Prime Minister, supported the idea of creating a PMC system, which could provide services for the protection of facilities and training of foreign military abroad without the participation of the Russian state. "It really is a tool for implementing national interests without the direct involvement of the state, – said Putin. – I believe that Yes, this is something to think about, to consider."

Military expert, senior researcher, Center for political studies Vadim Kozyulin noted that because of the article "Mercenary activities" in the UK (359) "the theme is very slippery". "We know that Russian retired military and other professionals have worked in many countries. Acted to the extreme. But as all this was happening abroad, the question of how to apply this article, sometimes there was a dead end," said Kozyulin the newspaper LOOK.

In the press said that in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kurdistan, Sri Lanka and other hot spots worked PMCs domestic "anti-terror eagle", "Tiger Top Rent Security", "Feraks", "RSB Group", "Redut-Antiterror".

In turn, the head of the Center for military forecasting Anatoly Tsyganok believes that Russia was late with the creation of a PMC for twenty years, however, this needs to be done. "Those soldiers who for some indicators can no longer serve in the military but have military experience, it is better to use in the PMC," said Anatoly Dmitrievich the newspaper VIEW.

However, he was sure that such companies should not be in the hands of oligarchs. "First and foremost they must be from Gazprom and protect the pipelines. This is very important. Pipelines should be protected, including from terrorist threat," – said the expert.

Kozyulin emphasizes that in the world practice the activities of such companies are widely used especially in the past decade. "The United States in many cases actually gave functions of national security to private companies. Among the advantages is the fact that the state is relieved of one headache. There is an army of mercenaries, which performs governmental functions for the United States, and for other States, but in the interests of the United States. At times, the US formally have no bearing on any conflict, and in fact American citizens are working for the money," – said the expert.

In Russia, according to him, it is equal to the global practice. "They can give the functions of protection of Russian representative offices abroad, foreign infrastructure projects that are sometimes important for Russian interests either of Russia-friendly States. They can be charged a study abroad foreign specialists in the sphere of security," said Kozyulin.

He agreed with the opinion that Russia has the potential of expansion into the market of private military services. According to him, many employees of Western private PMCs have Russian citizenship. "Many are privately hired experts. Demand repairman Soviet technology. But this is done in semi-guerrilla fashion. All this can be put into the civilized frameworks, and these companies will pay taxes in Russia. Now these companies have to hide out, to register abroad," – said the expert.

He also believes that the basis personnel of such companies must be retired military and security officers, as it opened abroad.

In turn, the expert of Association of military political scientists, associate Professor of political science and sociology REU named after Plekhanov Alexander Perendzhiev adds that it may take officers who were dismissed EN masse from the Armed forces under the Minister of defense Anatoly Serdyukov. "Retired officers often go to criminal structures. They need to withdraw from the crime that they acted in the interests of the country, so their experience is not lost. Reserve officers working in the PMC, it is possible to return to the system if necessary. This is a hidden reserve," said Perendzhiev the newspaper VIEW.

According to him, PMCs do not operate only as outsourcing of armed forces. "This could be the outsourcing of the internal troops, the FSB, SVR. In fact, private military companies – is outsourcing in the field of national security," – said the expert.

Vadim Kozyulin does not exclude that in the case of operational development of the bill and its approval by the members of the Russian PMC can be used in the South-Eastern regions of Ukraine. "Now we are discussing the issue of peacekeeping functions in Ukraine. It is known that private companies are often engaged for this work in most countries. There is a place for Russian companies", – the expert believes.
With the fact that in the current situation there is a need for such companies agree and Perendzhiev. "We are not talking about the fact that these companies will carry out combat functions. They can provide the intellectual and informational services, to perform tasks in the sphere of material support of the armed forces. But there should be specific units that are able to perform specific functions of a military character," – said the Perendzhiev.

As an example, he called the presence of Russian troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. "For this reason there is a conflict. Georgia considers these territories are occupied. If Russia pulls out its troops and instead they will have private military company, we declare that our troops there. So do the Americans. They withdrew their troops from Iraq, but remained a private company. They guard certain areas and act in the interests of the United States. The same system will be in Afghanistan. Perhaps they would be useful on the territory of Ukraine to protect Russian interests and business", – said the expert, stressing that due to the PMC you can get away from contact the official state structures and not to create grounds for a military conflict between States.

Andrew Carvers

Source: http://www.vz.ru/society/2014/6/27/693088.html