Translated material
The authorities decided to legitimize military mercenaries
In Russia, private military companies are going to legalize. The bill, which will legitimize the activities of the famous PMC Wagner, will appear in a month.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons / CC by-SA 3.0
,_%D0%98%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BA,_2007_%D0%B3..jpg){kind=link}
The Russian authorities will again try to legalize the work of private military companies (PMCs) - today the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on State Building and Legislation, Mikhail Emelyanov, said that the corresponding project will be entered in the lower house within a month. On January 15, the Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke up for creating a legislative framework to protect the interests of Russian mercenaries. In the Kremlin, however, the initiatives were distanced. “I don’t know that such a bill exists,” said Dmitry Peskov.
- According to Emelyanov, the law will attract PMCs to participate in counter -terrorist operations abroad, as well as to protect various objects like oil and gas deposits. The document will also be written in social jackets for Russians who work for PMCs - now they officially do not have any rights and benefits provided for contractors. PMC, among other things, will be banned by the development, buy or store weapons of mass destruction.
- The authorities have been trying to legalize the activities of PMCs for six years: in 2012, the PMC system was proposed to create a PRO Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Russia. After that, several attempts were made to adopt the bill, but each time it deviated or responded. The Constitution prohibits the "creation and activity of public associations, the goals or actions of which are aimed at <...> the creation of armed groups." In addition, Article 359 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for a prison term for “recruitment, training, financing or other material support for the mercenary, as well as its use in armed conflict or military operations”.
- The most famous private military company in Russia is Wagner PMC. It is such a call sign as the media wrote that Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Utkin, who leads this formation. It is believed that Wagner's PMC is involved in the operation in Syria, and before that its fighters fought in the Crimea and in the Donbass (the Fontanka wrote about this). The sponsor of the PMC was called the businessman and the “Putin restaurateur” Evgeny Prigozhin (he himself always denied this connection). The Ministry of Defense also denies any similar information. Investigations of Wagner PMC can be read here and here .
What am I to me?
All over the world, PMCs are a huge business. The annual volume of this market is estimated at hundreds of billions of dollars, and the revenue of the largest PMC in the world exceeds $ 10 billion. How to relate to the legalization of mercenaries in Russia - as a new niche in the market or as a violation of the Constitution - to decide.
Artem Gubenko, The Bell