Mercenary troops in Russia: history, legal status of PMCs. Private military companies: history and modernity

Jeeps with well-armed people are driving along the streets of the hot southern city. Severe men in military uniform are strikingly different from local soldiers - they are "white". But these are not peacekeepers and not the second coming of the colonialists. Private military companies have long been widely in demand on the African continent. To some extent, Africa can even be considered the birthplace of PMCs in their modern form. It was the era of decolonization and numerous national liberation and civil wars in African countries that created a huge demand for foreign mercenaries, who, due to their experience and the availability of military professions, were much more combat-ready than the actual African military personnel.

Since the 1950s - 1960s. the governments of young African states began to invite foreign military specialists to serve - both individuals and military companies organized by foreigners. Mercenaries were readily used by African leaders for several reasons.

Firstly, foreign mercenaries were much better trained than African soldiers themselves, they had great experience participation in hostilities in various parts of the world. So, among the mercenaries who arrived in Africa in the 1950s - 1070s, there were many veterans of the Second World War, various colonial conflicts. Many of the mercenaries had a high-quality military education, some in the past were senior officers in the regular armies of various states.

Secondly, there has always been more trust in private military companies that are not connected by tribal relations and do not fit into the clan schemes of African societies. Many African dictators preferred to recruit foreign mercenaries for personal protection, who were trusted much more than their fellow tribesmen.

Finally, Europeans and Americans who served in private military companies have always been more disciplined and responsible warriors than their own soldiers. The Soviet press at that time painted portraits of mercenaries in very negative colors, but in reality, foreign "soldiers of fortune" who served in Africa, although they were not "dandelion boys", were still significantly inferior in "frostbite" and criminal inclinations to local soldiers and officers, even those who served in government troops and police forces.

The second half of the twentieth century is filled with numerous examples of the participation of foreign mercenaries in African wars. In fact, not a single major African conflict could do without them. Several mercenary commanders of the second half of the 20th century became real legends of the Cold War. Michael Hoare, Jean Schramm, Bob Denard - these names are forever inscribed in the post-colonial wars on the African continent. Michael Hoare, a former Major in the Royal Armored Forces of Great Britain, an Irishman, after retiring, he lived in Durban, worked as an accountant, but then returned to the military profession. The war in the Congo on the side of Moise Tshombe, the coup attempt in the Seychelles made Hoar, known by the nickname "Crazy Mike", one of the most famous mercenaries in the world. Former Belgian planter Jean Schramm retired to the jungle after his plantation was destroyed by supporters of Patrice Lumumba. Since that time, he devoted his life to participating in various local wars.

But the most famous mercenary was Bob Denard, a former French Navy soldier, participant in the Indochina Wars, and then a police officer in French Morocco. Denard also began his "wild goose" career during the war in the Congo against the supporters of Patrice Lumumba. For ten years, from 1968 to 1978, Bob Denard served as military adviser to Gabonese President Omar Bongo. At the same time, Denard continued to participate in various conflicts - the Portuguese invasion of Guinea in 1970, the attempt of the Biafran separatists to secede from Nigeria, the attempted military coup in Benin in 1977. Denard participated in a military coup in the Comoros, where he settled for fifteen years, becoming the commander of the presidential guard, converting to Islam and receiving the new name Said Mustafa Majoub.

The civil war in the Congo was one of the first examples of the large-scale use of foreign mercenaries in Africa in the second half of the 20th century. After the political independence of the former Belgian Congo was proclaimed in 1960, a conflict began in the country between Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, who adhered to leftist views and was considered a pro-Soviet politician, and his opponent, pro-Western Moise Tshombe, who declared the independence of the province of Katanga - the most promising region Congo, in which the main natural resources of the country were concentrated and a large European population lived. In Katanga, Tshombe proclaimed himself president and formed the armed forces - the gendarmerie, into which he invited several hundred Belgian officers and non-commissioned officers. Numerous white mercenaries from all over the world entered the service of Katanga, including Michael Hoare and Bob Denard. A detachment under the command of Michael Hoar, staffed by European mercenaries and pilots from among the Cuban Contras, in 1965 opposed a detachment of Cubans under the command of Ernesto Che Guevara, who came to the aid of the Congolese revolutionaries.

The second well-known example of the participation of mercenaries in African conflicts is the war in Angola. If Soviet military instructors and specialists and a large Cuban military contingent fought on the side of the pro-Soviet MPLA party, Holden Roberto's pro-Western FNLA movement and Jonas Savimbi's UNITA opposition movement enlisted European, Rhodesian and South African mercenaries to help. On the side of the FNLA, a detachment of the notorious Kostas Georgiou (1951-1976), a former corporal of the British paratrooper regiment, a Greek Cypriot by nationality, fought. Despite his young years, Georgiou was a very difficult guy. While serving with the British Paratroopers, the corporal was involved in a post office robbery.

Naturally, this was the end of Georgiou's official military career - he spent two years in prison, was released early, and then enlisted in the FNLA, taking the pseudonym "Colonel Tony Callan." Georgiou formed his own detachment, the backbone of which was made up of his friends - a colleague in the parachute regiment Nick Hall, an accomplice in the mail robbery Michael Winehouse and a cousin of a concubine Cypriot Charlie Christodolu, nicknamed "Charlie Shotgun". Nick Hall was given the rank of major, and Winehouse and "Shotgun" became captains in the FNLA army. Thanks to recruitment in the UK, the detachment was soon replenished with a hundred European mercenaries, mostly former British paratroopers. In the FNLA army, the Georgiou unit turned out to be the most combat-ready unit that performed the most difficult tasks.

FNLA leader Holden Roberto called Costas Georgiou a man of phenomenal courage. At first, the Georgiou detachment fought very effectively, but then the quality of the personnel deteriorated. Instead of former paratroopers, the unemployed and lovers of easy money began to arrive in Angola, who had never served in the army and refused to go to the front line. This irritated the already aggressive and cruel Georgiou, who began to ruthlessly shoot not only captured opponents, but also his subordinates. In February 1976, after the defeat of the FNLA, Georgiou was captured, and on June 11, 1976, a trial of mercenaries began in Luanda - 13 citizens of the United States and Great Britain. On July 10, 1976, Costas Georgiou, Andrew Mackenzie, Daniel Francis Gerhart and John Derek Barker were executed by firing squad.

In the 1990s, foreign mercenaries took part in numerous civil wars on the African continent. At the same time, African governments and transnational corporations began to even more actively attract private military companies to protect important objects, including political leaders, highways, and mineral deposits. Neither their own leaders nor transnational corporations trust the African military, knowing their level of training, and most importantly, their propensity to participate in various adventures and corruption.

Now the African market for security services is a tasty morsel for private military companies from various countries. There are American, French, Chinese, Russian and even Ukrainian private military companies in Africa. In 1989-1998 one of the most powerful private military companies operating in Africa was Executive Outcomes, which was created by former Lieutenant Colonel Eben Barlow of the South African Army.

The backbone of PMC employees were Boers - white South Africans, who, after the black majority came to power, were quickly squeezed out of the South African army and police. Executive Outcomes thwarted an attempted coup in Sierra Leone in 1995 by returning control of the diamond mines to the government. In 2015, Eben Barlow created the STEPP PMC, which trains Nigerian government troops.

The British company Sandline International, created by Simon Mann and staffed by former British military personnel, existed from 1994 to 2004, noting its participation in the civil war in Sierra Leone. Washington pays special attention to supporting American private military companies in Africa, considering them as a tool for asserting American military and political influence and one of the main obstacles to the penetration of competing states on the African continent. AFRICOM (US Army Africa Command), thanks to the presence of private military companies in Africa, has the ability to respond more quickly to a variety of challenges. If the use of a regular army outside the United States requires numerous congressional authorization procedures, then it is much easier to use private military companies to protect American interests.

Russian PMCs RSB-Group, Moran Security Group and some others are also active on the African continent. According to media reports, now Russian PMCs are actively working in the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Libya. "RSB-Group" (also "Russian security systems" has a representative office in Senegal and is engaged in demining objects in African countries, escorting ships in order to protect them from pirate attacks.

Back in the 1990s, the first Ukrainian mercenaries began to appear on the African continent. At first they were pilots, then specialists of other military specialties were added to them. Now Ukrainian private military companies are trying to master the market of specialized services in a number of African countries. Thus, according to media reports, the Ukrainian PMC Omega Consulting Group recently opened its representative office in Burkina Faso. Hired military specialists from Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina are also active in Africa, including those with experience in the Yugoslav wars.

In recent years, more and more actively declares itself in the market of military services and China. It is known that now the PRC is launching its military base on the territory of the small East African country of Djibouti, where there are already bases of a number of European countries. But in addition to the official military base where the PLA soldiers will serve, there are employees of Chinese private military companies in Africa. They carry out tasks for the protection of Chinese business facilities on the continent. However, given the specifics of China's political system, it is clear that all Chinese PMCs are affiliates of the PLA. The personnel of Chinese private military companies is staffed by former army and police special forces - high-class professionals who may well compete with their American, South African and European counterparts.

Private military companies and their employees - from owners and managers to ordinary soldiers - operate on the African continent for commercial purposes. They are involved in a wide variety of conflicts, often performing very unattractive tasks, but it should be noted that, in a certain sense, the presence of private military companies also contributes to the real maintenance of order in African countries. Thus, private military companies protect businesses from attacks by bandits, provide security shipping from pirates, protect deposits natural resources and enterprises. Finally, private military companies are making their contribution to the fight against international terrorism and various radical groups.

Three Russian journalists - Kirill Radchenko, Alexander Rastorguev and Orkhan Dzhemal - were killed in the Central African Republic (CAR) on Monday, July 30. The Russians went there to investigate the activities of the "private military company Wagner". Journalists and activists have collected a lot of information about her bit by bit over the past few years. DW presents all the most important things we have learned so far.

What is PMC Wagner

The Wagner Private Military Company or the Wagner Group is an unofficial military organization that is not part of the regular armed forces of Russia and does not have legal status on its territory. The military units of PMC Wagner numbered at different times and according to various sources, from 1350 to 2000 people. According to sources in the German newspaper Bild in the Bundeswehr, the total number of mercenaries reaches 2,500 people.

Ruslan Leviev, founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), an activist group that monitors the actions of the Russian military in Syria, clarifies that salaries depend on skills, goals and the location of the operation. During training in Russia, according to CIT, the salary is from 50 to 80 thousand, during foreign operations - 100-120 thousand, in the event of hostilities - 150-200 thousand, in the case of special campaigns or major battles- up to 300 thousand.

Where do mercenaries train?in Russia

The "Wagner Group", according to numerous testimonies, is training at a military base near the Molkino farm in the Krasnodar Territory, directly adjacent to the 10th separate brigade of the GRU special forces of the RF Ministry of Defense (military unit 51532). There is no information about other training points.

Losses among mercenaries

The calculation of losses among the "soldiers of fortune" is complicated for a number of reasons: this is the illegal status of PMCs and its fighters, and the company's formal non-accountability to government agencies, and a non-disclosure agreement. As a result, the relatives of the victims often find out about the incident only a few weeks later. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation refuses to record losses among mercenaries.

In October 2017, the SBU provided data on 67 dead, who had experience of military operations both in the Donbass and in Syria. For December 2017 total number Since the beginning of the participation of mercenaries in hostilities in Syria, the Fontanka journalists estimated the established losses at 73, the CIT team - at 101 people.

See also:

• From spring to war

  In early 2011, the "Arab Spring" reached Syria, but the first peaceful demonstrations were brutally suppressed by the police. Then, starting on March 15, mass protests began to flare up across the country demanding the resignation of Bashar al-Assad. It was hardly imaginable that those events would set off a conflict that would drag on for eight long years and claim the lives of nearly half a million Syrians.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Parties to the conflict

After a wave of mass protests swept through the country, Assad began to use the army to suppress them. In turn, opponents of the regime were forced to take up arms. The conflict also included groups of national minorities (for example, the Kurds) and Islamist terrorist groups, among which the so-called "Islamic State" stands apart.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

"Caliphate" of terrorists

In April 2013, fighters from the terrorist organization ISIS, formed from a division of al-Qaeda, entered the civil war in Syria. In June 2014, the group announced the renaming of the "Islamic state" and proclaimed "caliphate". According to some reports, in 2015, about 70 percent of the territory of Syria was under the control of ISIS, and the number of militants was 60,000 people.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Cultural heritage as a target for terrorists

The destruction of the ancient oasis city of Palmyra has become a symbol of the barbaric treatment of objects by ISIS terrorists cultural heritage. In total, since the start of the civil war in Syria, more than 300 archaeological sites. In February 2015, the UN Security Council equated the destruction of objects of historical, cultural and religious value by IS militants to acts of terrorism.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Migration Crisis

According to the UN, over the past seven years, 5.3 million Syrians have fled the country. Most of them took refuge in neighboring Turkey (more than 3 million people), Lebanon (over 1 million) and Jordan (almost 700 thousand). But the possibilities of these countries to receive refugees were practically exhausted. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Syrians have gone to seek refuge in Europe, sparking a refugee crisis in the EU.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

International coalition against ISIS

In September 2014, US President Barack Obama announced the creation of an international coalition against IS, which included more than 60 states. Members of the coalition launched airstrikes on militant positions, trained local ground forces, and provided humanitarian assistance to the population. In December 2018, US President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of American soldiers from Syria, justifying this with a victory over ISIS.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Islamic Anti-Terrorist Coalition

In December 2015, Saudi Arabia presented its anti-terrorist coalition, consisting of Islamic countries. It includes 34 states, some of which, like the Saudis themselves, are also members of the international coalition led by the United States.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Russian involvement

Since the fall of 2015, the Russian Aerospace Forces have also been carrying out strikes in Syria, according to Moscow, only against ISIS positions. According to NATO, 80% of Russian airstrikes were aimed at Assad's opponents from the moderate opposition. In November 2017, Putin announced the imminent end of his military mission in Syria. The grouping will be reduced, but 2 military bases and some other structures will remain at the disposal of the Russian Federation.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Peace negotiations

On March 14, 2016, on the eve of the 5th anniversary of the start of the civil war in Syria, negotiations on a peaceful settlement of the conflict under the auspices of the UN started in Geneva. The first such attempt in early February ended in failure against the backdrop of the offensive of Assad's army on the city of Aleppo. The second chance appeared after the conclusion of a truce between the parties on February 27 with the assistance of the United States and the Russian Federation.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Use of chemical weapons

According to a joint UN/OPCW report, the Assad regime is responsible for the use of the poison sarin in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017, and the Islamic State used sulfur mustard during an attack in Oum Hosh in September 2016.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Arrangement for security zones

Since January 2017, in the capital of Kazakhstan, on the initiative of Russia, Turkey and Iran, inter-Syrian negotiations have been held parallel to the Geneva talks on a settlement in Syria. For the first time, representatives of both the Bashar al-Assad regime and opposition forces met at the same table. In May, a memorandum on the creation of four de-escalation zones in northern, central and southern Syria was signed in Astana.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

A year of radical change in Syria

The year 2017 brought radical changes to the situation in Syria. Back in December 2016, Assad’s troops, with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces, liberated Aleppo, and in the spring of 2017, Homs. And in June, US-Russian agreements were reached to establish the Euphrates River as a dividing line between the Syrian Democratic Forces and Assad's forces.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Defeat of ISIS, but not yet the final victory

In 2018, Assad's troops occupied the strategically important city of Deir ez-Zor and several others. And the opposition "Forces of Democratic Syria" and the Kurdish YPG with the support of the United States - Rakku. On March 3, 2019, a decisive battle took place for the last settlement of Bahgus, which is in the hands of ISIS. After the liberation of the village, only a remote region west of the Euphrates will remain under ISIS control.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

Troika in Sochi

In 2017, at a meeting in Sochi, the leaders of Russia, Iran and Turkey, Vladimir Putin, Hassan Rouhani and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came up with a number of initiatives, calling on Damascus and the opposition to participate in the Syrian Congress national dialogue which should pave the way for constitutional reform. In 2019, the leaders of the three states said that control of Syria should return to the government in Damascus.



Syria: 8 years of war and unclear prospects for conflict resolution

New use of chemical weapons in Douma

According to humanitarian organizations, on April 7, 2018, chemical weapons were used again in the city of Duma, the last center of resistance of Islamists and rebels in the region. According to WHO, more than 70 people died during the attack, and 500 residents had symptoms of poisoning. Syrian authorities denied this information. But on March 1, 2019, OPCW experts concluded that chlorine was most likely used in Douma.

Who are they mercenaries, and where do they come from PMC, or Private Military Companies

Mercenary("soldier of fortune") - a person entering into armed conflict not for ideological, national, political reasons (and does not belong to any ideological group interested in the outcome of the conflict) and not in accordance with military duty, but for the sake of profit. — according to Wikipedia.

Yes, very different. From once upon a time professional military from all over the world (this may be a former GRU major, who was suddenly caught by the collapse of the USSR in Africa, after which a person who had nothing and no one in his homeland thought - “ but fuck it all with a horse, why am I really ...“, took and dumped), to the former combat swimmer of the Thai Navy (very harsh warriors, by the way).

The list can't be continued professional military. Here you and our former paratroopers, and former marines US Army, and various . From former royals Marines Her Majesty the British Queen and to modest Swedish paratrooper, two meters tall and completely Nordic in appearance (in Africa, for example, these look absolutely enchanting). It may even be a Chinese (by the way, this is a rarity in the world of mercenaries) with an extremely murky biography and a gloomy reputation. Well, you can just end up with adventurers, adrenaline junkies, criminals and others who have nothing to do with the war and the army fuckers personalities.

That is, the spread is such that the correlation can be carried out and the answer to the question “ what kind of people are there?", very difficult. People are like people, there are two legs, two arms, basically two eyes, one nose. There is also an ass, for some, by the way, it habitually replaces the head. In short, people are people. Everyone comes in for their own. Someone just, and in order not to go crazy in civilian life, goes to mercenaries. Someone is bored with life, and he finds ways to keep himself busy. Someone tortured cats in childhood, then switched to people, but the laws of their native country do not approve of this, and here they also pay for it. Someone simply from the fact that he could not find himself in life, and the skills are only self-mutilating. And someone, simply not knowing how to do anything, accidentally got into this audience, and having picked up everything on top, he's fucking sick of what is happening around.

In short - here is the occasion for a huge philosophical treatise on the topic " Mom, why am I ladsknecht? «

Accordingly, the assessment of this public is also a non-trivial task. Too wide spread. It may turn out that that mangy cat used to be a scoundrel, that inconspicuous uncle in his “past life” went on the attack, shouting “Hu!” ( cry of american rangers ), but could joyfully jump overboard with a cry of “ Geronimo!» ( British mating call paratroopers ), but he could cheerfully lay mines under peaceful Jewish buses, muttering maliciously under his breath “ Allah Akbar…» ( at the same time, mug and biography may have nothing to do with any Muslims in principle).

So puzzle, who are these mercenaries?

The point is that to disassemble the phenomenon itself " mercenarism» in the modern context is impossible without considering such a phenomenon as PMC. Of course, one must understand that it is impossible to put an equal sign between these concepts. But it is necessary to understand that both of these phenomena are more than tightly interconnected.

To start, a little history. To summarize a little, the first PMC can be considered a whole country -. It was in those ancient times, when people merrily chopped each other's limbs for money in fierce fights on a variety of iron. The times then were fertile, not burdened by either European commissions or human rights courts. Therefore, the mercenary mechanism was regulated very simply - according to the laws of the market. There is a demand - there is a supply. And since they fought almost continuously in those days, both items were always available.

Switzerland was the main supplier of high quality mercenary infantry. Of course, incidents often happened then, such as buying up mercenary detachments almost on the battlefield (now this is not very common, because mass communications), but in general landsknechts and were the very first PMCs, under the roof of a growing and emerging state, which we now know as Switzerland.

Let's dilute the history with linguistics a bit

What is PMC basically? The abbreviation is deciphered simply and clearly - Private Military Company(in rare cases - Corporation). In the English version PMC — Private Military Contractor, in a more accurate translation - Private military contractor. And although everyone understands perfectly well what this means, they prefer the concept of a contractor. Almost like a Tajik builder. Sounds more peaceful, and does not cause fierce take it easy citizens who can't imagine how can this war be a private matter? And as practice shows, it can very well.

In the end, the fundamental difference between similar to mercenaries public - pirates, of those times and now, lies in the fact that then it was a handsome and legendary sir Francis Drake in the service of the British crown, with a snow-white sailboat and " noble tales" about him. And now it's bare-assed hungry Somalis on fishing boats, in the service of their bosses, and censured by the world community. From appearance the essence does not change. Both variants of IRL are just robbers at sea. And whose interests they defend there, this is the twentieth case. In those beautiful times, the interests of the royal families were defended, now private corporations. There is no difference.

With mercenaries, the same garbage is absolutely. So what's the point?

In order to understand this, let's move from the harsh shit and mud of the Middle Ages to the middle of the last century, to the region South America, and get acquainted with that rare phenomenon, which is now called Private Military Corporation (Private Military Corporation). There was such an office called United Fruit (United Fruit's), it was organized long before the birth CIA, and even before the occurrence OSS (predecessors CIA ), as far back as 1899, and for 50 years honestly served the interests of American colonial capitalism. Until, in the early 40s, she landed on the hook to the same OSS (Office of Strategic Services), which set a very modest task for a small trading company - to protect US interests throughout the region. Which way? And whatever.

There were no restrictions on resources and means. Bribery, threats, force actions, coups, punitive operations ( most importantly don't read United Fruit pediviki, rare crap is written there, and even flawed).

In short, no matter how, but the interests must be respected. And, of course, it was impossible to scroll all this openly. In those days, America was still embarrassed to openly and impudently climb into the countries of interest to them (yes, there were such times). Officially, the office was engaged in the export / import of fruits throughout the South American region.

By the way, it was this office that sponsored with money, personnel and equipment an attempt to return Cuba to the American protege Batista ( you can evaluate the level of scope - take and return your power to the island state). Those interested can google "Bay of Pigs Landing" for a deeper understanding of the amount of trash and frenzy that the small trading firm is producing. There, however, it turned out that the revolutionaries in Cuba already have a red-star roof, and the grief of the "paratroopers" along with United Fruit And CIA waiting for the most severe oblomaitis. After that, the office turned out to be so illuminated that it had to be turned off.

By the way, they turned it off for a long time, almost until the end of the 70s of the last century. Those interested can turn their attention to the fact that the disbandment and reorganization of a number of units " fruit empire"had a direct relationship with the now well-known US Secretary of State John Kerry which (oh suddenness what) on this moment the largest lobbyist PMC in the American government.

So here it is United Fruit- it's basically the first PMC modern history. And it is on a corporate scale.

Because she had interests on the entire South American continent, and could defend them by any means available at that time, from air raids to land and sea operations ( nifiga itself such a private shop). However, having burned down, the office began to quickly wither and dry, and was quickly taken away into many smaller offices, both by the management itself and by “crisis managers” from the outside ( CIA).

And here it can be said that the dawn of an era began PMC

In general, until the early 80s, the very concept PMC basically absent. There were informal associations of mercenaries, united, as a rule, by experienced and charismatic commanders. The most famous and memorable can be called Bob Denard, Mike Hoare And Siegfried Müller (pedivikia and google to help you, the citizens are so colorful and interesting that in an unwritten book each would have its own chapter). Plus, there was a whole cohort of various groups that, for certain amounts, offered a solution to any anal and oral requests of geopolitical problems.

Let's do whatever president finish, the main thing is to pay accordingly.

By the way, it’s worth explaining that all this freemen existed mainly on orders from US and European oil companies, these are the so-called “ oil wars» 70s, when the African continent was violently torn apart by such giants, now known for their peacefulness, as Shell, British Petroleum, Texaco, and other players on oil market.

How do you know where oil and geopolitics. But defending the commercial interests of the native country, or rather a group of hucksters representing a certain country, with the help of the state military machine in those days was not accepted and not polite ( think, in times there were cultural and modest). And the armed forces were needed more than ever, starting from the protection of oil rigs and oil pipelines, ending with the "eviction" of local people who interfere with enrichment.

For those wishing to learn more about the methods of "eviction", I advise you to watch a good film " shooter» ( shooter) everything is told and explained there for dummies:

300 bodies buried in Eritrea. Men, women, children... Just under the tower.
k / f "Shooter" (c)

As you understand, the solution of such tasks required certain moral qualities from the performers. By the way, one of the reasons why PMC popular to this day. Not every regular army will agree just like that, for the sake of an oil rig, to stupidly cut out a clean couple of thousand people. And mercenaries do not disdain such part-time jobs. On the contrary, the more such episodes in a creative biography, the better. Customers deposit money more actively, and it is easier to deal with potential opponents/victims. Perhaps you don’t even have to shoot, they themselves will scatter with a screech.

But sooner or later, any informal and semi-formal freemen comes to an end. In the end, the same mercenaries for some time now began to represent a completely serious, and most importantly, an independent force in the region, and by the beginning of the 80s, not at all in one. As we all understand, no one will tolerate independence, in any form, especially if we are talking about money. And if it's about MONEY, then there can be no question of any patience at all.

One way or another, but the freemen began to be pressed. Where by financial mechanisms, where by physical measures of influence / intimidation. And some were simply persuaded by the forces of colleagues / competitors, expired polonium. And as you know, A holy place is never empty“especially when it comes to money and resources. And it is natural that non-illegal companies began to occupy a sensitively empty niche. wild geese" And free shooters, A organized by PMCs.

An interesting point is also that the phenomenon itself mercenarism by the standards of international law is thoroughly illegal. And here is the activity PMC(despite the fact that they are doing essentially the same thing) is legal a little more than completely. What's the catch? But in nothing. Private military company Under the contract, as a rule, it performs only a security function. That is, from a legal point of view, it is an ordinary CHOP (Private security company). Yes, yes, yes, from the point of view of international law, a brave guy, to the very tomatoes and with on his shoulder, guarding an oil well belonging, for example, Lukoil, somewhere at the devil's horns, is almost equivalent to a pot-bellied uncle with a "security" patch on his jacket, sitting at a Lukoil gas station ( I'm exaggerating, of course, but only slightly.).

Both perform the function of protecting private property. But feel the difference!

It is clear that on PMC quite strict restrictions are imposed on the use and possession of various types of weapons. For example, there is a ban on attack aircraft, but it is easily bypassed by a number of offices operating in South America.

And as usual, loopholes in this case so many that it regularly gives rise to legal incidents. For example, when any private warriors riding tanks that don't belong to them at all. Where did they come from then? And they are trophy and " applied in connection with sudden occurrence of force majeure circumstances“, but they are not the property of the company. And to ride on unrequited nigers on them can be completely undead.

And what is characteristic, such "loopholes" the sea spilled. As a rule, they are all known, but the world community does not seek to cover them up. Which, as it were, makes you think.

See the world, visit unusual countries, meet wonderful people and shoot them, earning a lot of money along the way - the work of a mercenary in a private military company (PMC) is very attractive at first glance. But in fact, everything is much more complicated: some volunteers chasing a long ruble can return home in coffins, while others do not smell gunpowder at all. Special correspondent Alexandra Wigraiser, on condition of anonymity, spoke with an employee of one of the world's largest private military companies and found out why the semi-legendary Wagner PMC cannot be called a private military company, how the "soldiers of fortune" live and what they are afraid of.

Lenta.ru: What do you know about Wagner PMC? How and for whom does it work? Why is their existence allowed in Russia?

All information on the surface. Everyone knows where their Moscow office is located. Yes, this is the structure of Evgeny Prigozhin. Why is this private military company (PMC) allowed to operate? It's hard for me to understand. I can assume that it's all about the relationship of a particular person with a particular president. This practice has no world analogues.

If people are fighting for the country, then these should not be “green”, “yellow” or “blue” men, but military personnel. If people are involved in private security, training or risk analysis, then it could be a private military company. But PMCs cannot fully participate in hostilities. Because PMC employers and the state can have completely different goals. The state, for example, sets some global goals, and a particular businessman is interested in capturing an oil plant. And from whom? The Kurds!

What's wrong with the Kurds? Aren't they just as much of an adversary as any other in Syria and Iraq?

Kurds - the enemy?! Trust me, anyone who has worked in Iraq is praying for the Kurds. Iraqi Kurdistan, for example, looks like an oasis in the middle of the desert. This is an amazing place! The sweetest, kindest people without any signs of Islamic fundamentalism. Girls on the streets wear T-shirts and Capri pants, alcohol is sold everywhere, whiskey is openly advertised on the street! These are the most normal, most adequate, most rational allies of any adequate forces in the Middle East.

Offending the Kurds, fighting the Kurds is the worst thing imaginable. Moreover, the Kurds have a great attitude towards Russia, they love it. And now the activity of some chefs leads to the fact that the whole of Kurdistan (the Syrian, Turkish, Iraqi and Iranian parts of it) simply turn away from the partner. Come to Kurdistan and see: they work there, there are Russian guys from PMCs. They do normal work, get normal money. There is cooperation with local security companies. They do a good job there without any "law on PMCs", without presidential chefs.

Kurds have a great attitude towards Russia. In Syria, at the suggestion of some close-minded supply manager, a political crisis is taking place, hundreds of Russian people are dying. This is insanity that needs to be stopped. I have worked in this area all my life and I can say what is happening behind the sign of "PMC Wagner" - this is not normal, this should not exist.

Is it possible, in this case, to call "PMC Wagner", so to speak, the Russian army in a different "clothes"?

This is not the Russian army. There is after all the well-known word "mercenaries". Any army officer is limited by certain laws and command hierarchies. And the Wagner... They just don't have the brakes that a huge inertial war machine has. Any order in the official structure would go through a huge number of instances - yes, stupid, but instances. And the Russian army is not going to fight the Kurds. Then no.

Another sad side: the personnel of the Wagner, to put it mildly, is of a completely different quality. And further on the points: the equipment and weapons are disgusting, the level of training is low, the effectiveness of command also leaves much to be desired - people are constantly dying there. This is well known in our circles. And therefore, the attitude of regular Russian soldiers and officers towards them is appropriate.

But there is another point that cannot be ignored. When a Russian pilot dies, he is buried with honors, broadcast on television, you write panegyrics and obituaries in your newspapers about what he, they say, was a good guy. And it is right. But here - through stupidity, through monstrous stupidity, more than a hundred people die. And what do they write about them? Have you seen this "troll factory"? “Ah, mercenaries, why feel sorry for them” - this is some fantastic level of hypocrisy, when ordinary guys from the outback are sent to die God knows where for money, and then they are buried in unmarked graves.

And if they were contract soldiers in the army, would it be better?

Certainly. First, it's a completely different attitude. Secondly, the army provides a number of bonuses. This includes citizenship, pension, and much more. And most importantly - the status of a legitimate participant in hostilities, as well as some kind of immunity from local laws. A soldier of the Russian army will not be handed over to a Syrian court, a soldier of the French foreign legion will not be handed over to a court in Mali.

And the PMC employee is a civilian. If Wagner employees had full military status, I personally would have nothing against it. For example, a man dies, and the mother can say to his child: “Son, your dad was a soldier, and he died as a hero, fought against terrorists.” Now what? Son, your dad didn’t know who did what, they didn’t tell us, he died when the dumb-headed oligarch wanted to wring out the oil field.

There was a precedent in history when the UAE hired about two thousand Colombians for the war in Yemen. And they even hid - like the Russian authorities - but they took them into the army, paid a very decent salary. And these were official soldiers in the service. So no, "PMC Wagner" is what in Russian is called "an illegal armed group", which is not clear to whom it obeys and is capable of provoking a huge international conflict due to the stupidity of its commanders. As a person who has been working in this field almost all his life, I support its development in every possible way, but such formations are harmful not only for the industry, but also for the image of Russia.

Why do you say that Wagner has a lower level contingent than the army?

Look, every person in our field personally knows someone who serves there, or someone who refused their offer. But nobody does not know a volunteer who would be denied admission by Wagner PMC. They take everyone: people with a criminal record, with alcohol addiction - everyone in a row.

It is enough to talk with their employees to understand: they are not only up to the level of the Special Operations Forces, they are not always up to ordinary construction battalions. Neither by the level of education, nor by the level of military training, nor by motivation. Again: I have great respect for those who work there. But let's be honest: professionals don't go there. Such a “wonderful” job, such an “amazing” opportunity to die even without a guarantee that your corpse will at least be returned home, they do not need. None of the Russians I know - those who worked in Iraq at the beginning of the 2000s, who are now working with Gazprom in Kurdistan - did not go there, because everyone understands that this, as they say, is a bad idea.

Does it happen that a private company conducts full-fledged military operations, and even with such losses? According to various sources, there could be up to two hundred dead among the mercenaries of the Wagner group.

Absolutely not. It is impossible to even imagine that now some Western PMC, an official company, is fighting. This is absolute absurdity. There was a precedent with Executive Outcomes who were involved in several civil wars in Africa, but that was in the early 90s. Since then the world has changed.

South Africans fought in Nigeria a few years ago. But some large international companies were not involved in this. This is a specific situation when specific people are recruited for a specific job, whose activities are initially completely outside the legal field. Therefore, Wagner is, of course, not a PMC. You can call it whatever you like, but in the Russian criminal code it is called an "illegal armed formation." I have nothing against the people who work there - I understand their motivation, I respect them as professionals, but you need to understand that this situation is not normal. Nothing like this can happen in any Western PMC.

Doesn't Wagner PMC work in the Russian legal field?

Of course no. On what basis are people given weapons, on what basis do they conduct military operations? I'm not a Syrian lawyer, I don't know what the laws are. But, in my opinion, the “Wagnerites” do not work either within the framework of Russian law or within the framework of the Syrian one. This is, as you like to say, "an education that has no analogues in the world."

But why do people go there? A job with a very high risk, with the possibility of getting a corny bullet in the forehead or a term for mercenarism?

I have not lived in Russia for a long time, but it is obvious that there is only one answer - despair. The economic situation in your country, especially in the regions, is difficult. Many people have served in the army and believe that they can't do anything else. They don't really know how to serve. But at least they identify themselves as great warriors. Plus, you need to understand that a certain militaristic pumping and propaganda has been going on in society for many, many years.

So desperation, lack of money and qualifications, extremely high housing prices, lack of affordable loans - these are all factors. Even with such losses, I'm afraid there will be a lot of people who want to get a job at Wagner. Especially from small towns. Look at known lists losses: there is almost no one from Moscow or St. Petersburg. These are all small towns where people have lost hope long ago. And the amount of 200 thousand rubles that a dishwasher in Britain receives makes people forget about everything and go nowhere, spitting on the instinct of self-preservation.

Well, with the "Wagnerites" is understandable. And what about normal PMCs? In the Russian media, mercenaries are portrayed as heroes rushing into battle on the most dangerous sectors of the front. How true is this image? What do private military companies actually do?

Completely not true. For a long time there have been no bearded guys with tattoos, dissecting in jeeps through the desert and firing at anything from a machine gun. 80-90 percent of business is absolutely standard stuff. We need to hang cameras, look at monitors, stretch barbed wire, provide drivers, technical intelligence equipment, and engage in analytics. The "bearded thugs" used to represent PMC employees are a minority, and a vanishing minority in this business. In fact, the work of PMCs is the work of watchmen, absolutely devoid of romanticism.

In general, there is a stereotype that the main work of a private military company is armed guards. But this should not be so: this situation has developed only because at one time Iraq and Afghanistan simply did not have a capable government and crowds of adventurers with weapons gathered there.

We have a lot of talk about the need for a law on PMCs, which would normalize their activities ... These conversations make me laugh. In America, which everyone nods at, there is no separate law on private military companies, and they do a good job. I don’t follow what is happening in Russia at all, but I often see what Russian journalists write about PMCs, and I laugh at it. I was taken aback by the recent situation in Syria.

Firstly, people died there, and secondly, everyone immediately began to tell: they say, everything is fine, these are mercenaries and why feel sorry for them. So. All this is said by clowns who have no idea what a PMC is and how it all works. Because nothing like what happened to Wagner PMC employees in Syria could physically happen either in an American, or in a British, or even in an Afghan company.

Let's just open our eyes and look at what a PMC is. I will decipher the abbreviation for those who do not know. PMC is first and foremost company is a private military company. An indispensable condition for its existence is the legality of activity. Now the most important and most needed person for PMCs is not a thug with a cleaver at the ready, but an approval manager - a specialist who monitors that all company activities comply with local laws.

And a PMC, by definition, cannot work outside the legal field, outside the law, because then it is no longer a company. This is a criminal organization, a gang - anything but a PMC. And when we now work in unstable regions and read the stories of various Russian propagandists, it first becomes funny, and then scary.

And hard mode is usually set?

In general, everything is maximally exhaustively described by the contract, which is signed in each individual case. But the main thing: any employee is completely subject to the laws of the country where he works. In fact, this is a four-component system: first, local laws, then the laws of the customer country, then the laws of the country in which the PMC is registered, then the contract. Each layer - additional restrictions.

And now imagine how rigidly this norms any activity, how great is the role of lawyers who must understand all conflicts, what bureaucratic colossus needs to be done in order to start fulfilling contractual obligations.

After all, even a contract is not an agreement on a page where it is written that company "A" protects the employees of plant "B" and there are two signatures. This is a huge, eight-hundred-page Talmud, which puts the performer in an extremely rigid framework. It even talks about standards of behavior, about sexual harassment!

But in Russia everything is still the same. Just one light from said: "During the second assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah, Blackwater played a key role, in fact, acting first as a barrage detachment, and then as the main force of the breakthrough." Usually I laugh when I read this, but then I wanted to find this person, take him by the scruff of the neck and ask: “Clown, what are you talking about ?!”

However, for some reason, this “four-component system” could not save Iraqi civilians from the tragedy when employees of the American company Blackwater shot civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad in 2007.

Right. I will not touch on what was there - this is a topic for a separate conversation. But contrary to the tales in the press, the participants in these events were tried, and in 2014 four were imprisoned. One for life, three others were given 30 years each. This is not an isolated case: the British are sitting in India, who simply accidentally swam into Indian territorial waters.

Under these conditions, it is ridiculous to say that PMC employees are "above the law." On the contrary, they are not only forced to comply with all laws, they regularly come up with new restrictions. Now even the language is being revised. For example, the term "rules for opening fire" is abandoned because it sounds too belligerent, it is replaced by the neutral "rules on the use of force."

As I said, the space for activity is constantly shrinking. In 2004, there was complete freedom in Iraq, but now Baghdad is doing everything so that only local mercenaries remain in the country. Now you can freely operate in absolutely non-existent countries such as Syria.

The conversations of our deputies and other experts that Russian PMCs will work somewhere will be frankly confused, but there is a complete misunderstanding of the situation and its context. In a few years, foreigners will remain only on large projects: the protection of embassies, key infrastructure, and then everything, without exception, will go to the locals.

Is hiring local a whim or a necessity?

I will give a simple example. Both in Iraq and in Afghanistan, PMCs always have local drivers. Why? It's simple: if a citizen of another country got into an accident or, God forbid, crushed someone, then they will simply sue him, or even put him in prison for decades. Therefore, they take a local, so that if something happens, they can disown him.

I remember only two exceptions. The period from 2003 to 2006 in Iraq, and from 2001 to 2004 in Afghanistan. Then it was possible to be above local laws, simply because they did not exist in fact. You flew in, there were no visas and passport control, right on the runway you received a machine gun and went to the villa with full “immunity”. But then in Iraq, for example, there was no state. There was the American ambassador Paul Bremer, the head of the occupying government and, in fact, the supreme ruler of Iraq. In that particular historical period, PMC employees could indeed enjoy certain immunity.

Now the situation is fundamentally different. Without permits, licenses do not take a step. They banned the use of the PKM (Kalashnikov machine gun), then they took away the RPK (Kalashnikov light machine gun), we even have two SVD rifles(Dragunov sniper rifle) were confiscated. They left the usual Kalashnikovs and pistols. Only local contractors help out - they have access to government offices, they can avoid prosecution for minor violations, they know the language, local realities. And hiring them is cheaper - banal business logic. They can be paid pennies.

The only exception is US government contracts, which only recruit US citizens, because only they can issue the necessary form of security clearance. Here they have all the employees - Americans, even those who stand at the gate. Only due to this there is some kind of work, because it is simply impossible to hire a foreigner there. If there is no security clearance requirement, then locals will be hired. True, their qualifications, as a rule, are almost at zero.

We see the results, remember the recent attack on a hotel in Kabul (then, as a result of an attack on a hotel populated mainly by Western officials, 43 people died - note "Lenta.ru"). It is obvious that this hotel is the number one target for all the villains, but even it was guarded by local clowns, who fled at the first sound of gunfire.

But a local employee needs to understand: you live there, you have a family. Today you defend some foreigner for money, and tomorrow your family will be slaughtered by the Taliban for this. So even if you are a professional, there is not much to expect from you. The only exception is the Kurds. Here they are really beautiful. Firstly, the society there has a positive attitude towards foreigners. Foreigners bring money, not war. No one will hurt your family if you guard foreigners. Secondly, many of them are really literate guys, they know the materiel, they speak English well. It is a pleasure to work with them.

What is the current ratio of "militants" and organizers, managers, analysts in companies?

It all depends on the specific contract. But in reality, in many countries where there is a severe need for security, it is simply impossible to work with weapons. Nigeria is a monstrous, scary place, but whoever you are, you cannot work with weapons there. Mexico, where the cartels kidnap 50 people every day, you can't. The only way out is if an armed group of Mexicans will work with you, and at a critical moment you will be able to grab a rifle from their hands and begin to administer justice.

But in fact, always with any contract, the number of armed foreigners is less than half, and maybe none at all. Now it’s much easier to hire a local to run around with a machine gun. And the authorities will be grateful. As a result, we have a huge number of people who want to work and a very, very small and ever-decreasing number of vacancies.

How big is the market for private military companies?

The total industry in the world is 171 billion dollars. But it is already divided among very large corporations. All of the significant companies in this area over the past four years have been bought by multinational security players who don't know how to operate in high-risk situations.

Now in the West there are practically no small and medium-sized players in this activity. The market consists of international corporations and local regional contractors. The reality is that the market for armed guards, the one that you journalists love to talk about, is by no means growing.

On the contrary, it is decreasing every year. And the reason is very simple: no normal state will allow the presence of foreigners with weapons on their soil. How often do you see armed citizens of other states in Russia? Foreign guards with machine guns, pistols that protect someone? No! Any state, even such failed countries as Iraq or Afghanistan, is now bringing foreign PMCs into such a narrow framework that work becomes almost impossible.

Who do PMCs usually work for? To the state?

It's a delusion. Private companies mainly fulfill orders of private business. It is impossible even to imagine that a Western or even an Afghan or Iraqi large company would work only with the state, only for the state, and even in this form, openly participating in hostilities. Although state contracts are always very profitable - it is either the protection of representatives of a particular state, or the protection of embassies, which is very monetary.

What do states usually entrust to private military companies?

Intelligence analysis, risk analysis, protection of embassies and diplomatic representatives, security of various facilities, if we are talking about American contracts. Once there was a case when he instructed the PMC to guard the corps of military engineers of the American army - there were not enough forces in that region. Stories about some political assassinations entrusted to contractors are, of course, fairy tales.

Cannon fodder, assault squads - this is not about PMCs. It was all in the 60s-90s and ended with Sandline and their coup attempt in Papua New Guinea. This was probably one of the last times someone tried to hire a PMC for some semblance of hostilities.

Photo: Jean-Christophe Kahn / Reuters

But he was lucky to some extent: Denard did not die in prison just because he had Alzheimer's disease. By the 90s everything state games ended with mercenaries. The old man was dragged through the courts until he died, and no old merits helped. So in Russia, as often happens, they decided to pick up a forgotten trend.

But can't we say that Syria is the same failed state, like Iraq during the period of occupation by the Americans?

Essentially no. There's a funny twist here. If you look from the position of Russia, then this is a fully established country with a government and laws. beautiful state where happy people they idolize the president, they are devoted to him with all their hearts, they are very glad that the war with the Islamic State (banned in the Russian Federation - note "Lenta.ru") is over.

That is, there is no such thing that we came, threw Assad off the throne, put our supreme ruler. No, we supposedly respect Syrian laws and their authority. But if power and law are when "Assad allowed" another state to form illegal armed formations on its territory and use them in a war, then this is just an example of a failed state.

It is unlikely that Syrian law allows the creation of illegal military formations on its territory and the conduct of independent military operations by them. However, I am not a lawyer and I am not going to meddle in Syria.

For many "Wagnerites" the war is just a way to make money. There is information that employees receive three thousand dollars for a month of active hostilities and half of this amount during their stay at the base. How close are these numbers to reality, and how do they compare with typical salaries in the industry?

Let's put it this way: they are close to reality. People from there talk about such amounts. But in general, you need to understand that even in hot spots, it’s not every day that evil terrorists with knives break into your base. The lower the risk level, the bigger idiots you can hire for this job. Therefore, often, when it is possible to hire a person, let's say, with low salary expectations, they will hire him.

It started back in the 2000s, when Chileans were hired for a penny, then it came to Ugandans. I worked with them in one African country- these comrades cannot even shoot normally from a machine gun. If there is an opportunity, and the risks are small, they always hire the cheapest ones.

Therefore, in the field of maritime protection, where everything started with salaries of six hundred dollars or six hundred pounds a day, salaries have fallen to ridiculous figures. Recently I saw an advertisement where Ukrainians were offered a job on the terms: 30 days at sea for $800. Discussed this in Iraq with a colleague from India and he, to tell the truth, almost died of laughter. Because it's funny money. But the Ukrainians go for it. Therefore, it is difficult to talk about some kind of average market wage. It very often falls because they hire locals or representatives of poor countries for pennies, including Romanians, Gurkhas, Indians, Ukrainians, Ugandans.

There are more prestigious contracts, where very high requirements are put forward for personnel. In this case, certain standards of payment are implied: for serious quality work, you can get about 10 thousand dollars a month. Few rise above this bar.

Is it really necessary to compete at a high level?

Recently there was a tender for the protection of the Australian embassy in one fairly "good country". So: just to show up, you need huge investments at the very beginning. Yes, they pay very decently for such a contract, but the problem of Russian companies is that there is no such business in this area that would be ready to go all the way and invest real money. There was an excellent example of the LUKOM-A company, which recruited people and was going to go to work in Iraq. They were simply not given a license to operate.

No one in Iraq or Afghanistan needs new players. It is run by local companies and the largest international corporations that can afford it. So the development of the Russian segment of PMCs will depend only on the development of domestic business. Once there is a critical number of projects to secure, the security business will emerge. You need to understand that there is already a need for it, but it is not fully realized.

Look at the most egregious case - the murder of the Russian ambassador in Ankara. Where were his guards? She just wasn't there. She was in Moscow. The division that deals with the security of the diplomatic corps is simply not able to provide protection to everyone who needs it. All countries employ private security specialists for these tasks.

But our state, instead of supporting the development of a normal healthy industry, is engaged in the creation of pocket illegal formations like Wagner. At the same time, Russian diplomatic representatives in countries with a huge level of danger are simply not protected by anyone. If this crazy practice continues, it will continue to cost the lives of Russian diplomats.

June 23rd, 2017

In general, the topic of specialist mercenaries, and even more so of such a whole shadow "army" that is not essentially official armed forces for many, most likely seems to exist in the world of cinema and fiction.

However, everything is more real and mundane. Here's the story of the world's largest mercenary army...

The dizzying growth of the largest army of mercenaries began not in hot spots like Afghanistan or Iraq, but in a small sleepy American town called Holland (Holland) in Michigan, where the founder of modern mercenarism, Erik Prince, was born into a right-wing Christian family.

It was the Princes family who laid the foundations that will help Blackwater (BW) rise to the unattainable heights of the international mercenary market in the future.

A beautiful two-story house on South Shore Drive is conveniently located by the waters of the picturesque Macatawa Lake. The sun shines brightly in its clear water. On both sides of the road old sprawling maples peacefully rustle. An American flag flies quietly over the house. The calm picture is occasionally disturbed by the noise of motor boats or randomly passing cars. Real America, straight from the postcard.

In little Holland, the Prince family was akin to European royalty, and Edgar Prince, Erik's father, was king. A quarter of the city worked for the self-taught manufacturer Edgar. He reshaped its institutions, planned and sponsored downtown development, and was one of the patrons of two local colleges.

If there was any lesson that Edgar passed on to his children, it was the understanding of how to build an empire and manage it, adhering to strict Christian dogmas, right-wing views and the basics of a market economy.

By 1973, the Prince Corporation was doing better than ever. With a staff of hundreds across multiple divisions, the company launched its flagship product, Edgar's own patented car sun visor.

18-hour working days had a bad effect on the health of the father of the family - he had a stroke at the age of 40. Finding himself in the hospital, as is usually the case, Edgar decided to devote himself entirely to the service of Jesus Christ.

However, this did not affect his business acumen in any way - soon Prince Corporation launched the production of many other automotive accessories that were very popular.

As Eric later said about his father, he "founded a company from scratch, which began to produce high-pressure casting machines, and then grew into a world-class supplier of auto accessories."

In the 1980s, the Princes bonded with one of the most powerful conservative families in the US when Eric's sister, Betsy, married Dick DeVos. By the way, her father was the founder of the Amway corporation, which generously sponsored, of course, candidates from the Republican Party.

Eric's father died of a second heart attack when he was 63 years old. A few minutes before his death, he spoke with the president of the Prince Corporation, then said goodbye and entered the elevator, where he was found 15 minutes later.

As happens when a king dies, the town of Holland goes into deep mourning. The locals even lowered their flags.

At this time, Eric served as a "fur seal" and has already managed to visit Bosnia, Haiti and the Middle East.

Note. translator: despite the rather stupid name, "fur seals" (orUnited StatesNavy’ s S e a, A ir, L and Teams — SEAL) is an elite force of the United States Navy. I won't go into details, but these guys are going through exhausting satanic training. About the final exam for joining the ranksSEALentitledHell weekeven filmed several films. So we can safely say that Eric was a strong and hardy young man. For those interested in "cats" we recommend the book worldwidefamous sniper Chris Kyle,american sniper.

Eric admired his father and dreamed of following in his footsteps since childhood. Deep religiosity was no exception - his writings in high school filled with quotations from the Bible. After high school, he entered the Naval Academy, dreaming of becoming a pilot on an aircraft carrier, but after three semesters he dropped everything to study at Hillsdale College, which preached libertarian economics. During his studies, Eric was a volunteer fireman and diver for the county sheriff. In a 2006 Princeton Review poll, the college was listed as the most conservative in the country.

Growing up, Eric began to take an active interest in right-wing politics, having entered the White House with George W. Bush. It was during this practice that he made his first political donation ($15,000) to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Erik Prince (AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

Eric supported politicians such as Jesse Helms (racist senator and admirer of the Confederate States of America), Ollie North (Iran arms trafficking scandal), Richard Pombo (connections with black lobbyist Jack Abramov), Dick Chrysler (founder of Cars and Concepts), Tom Coburn (senator and deacon of the Southern Baptist Church with all the consequences), Tom DeLay (unclear connections with the same black lobbyist Abramov and a number of Russian oligarchs) and many others. At least for the consistency of views, Eric can be praised.

In 1992, he turned his attention to the campaign of renegade Republican Pat Buchanan, who was trying to wrest the Republican nomination from President Bush with his ultra-conservative agenda against migrants, abortion, and same-sex marriage. Because of this, Eric had a big fight with his sister, who was working for Bush at the time. However, their quarrel ended as quickly as Eric's fascination with the Buchanan campaign - he returned to the SEAL ranks, joining the eighth squad (SEAL Team 8) after the officer candidate school. It was during the period from '92 to '96 with the SEALs that Eric met many of those who would later become his assistants in the founding of BW.

For the first months after the death of Patriarch Edgar Prince, no one knew what would happen to his legacy, the Prince Corporation. More than 4,000 employees depended on how Edgar himself saw the future of the company. Now this burden fell to all members of the family - his wife, Elsa, became the chairman of the board of directors; Eric, having broken with the service, took up the daily affairs of the company. His wife, Joan Nicole, has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Life in fabulous Holland began to turn into hell.

In 1996, a year after Edgar's death, the family sold the business for $1.35 billion to Johnson Controls on a promise to keep the Prince Corporation brand, all hired employees, and benefits package. True, as often happens in the world of big business and big money, Johnson Controls did not keep its promise, buried the brand, and fired part of the employees, disbanding the enterprise.

At this time, Eric, following in the footsteps of his father in his religiosity, came to the adoption of Catholicism. Taking Edgar's example of donating to right-wing Protestants, he began donating money to right-wing Catholics like Catholic Answers, who opposed abortion, homosexuality, stem cell research, and cloning.

At the same time, the Princes family was a member of the Council for National Policy. The New York Times described the council as "a well-known club of several hundred of the most powerful conservatives in the country who meet behind closed doors three times a year to discuss how to take the country to the right."

The fact that this council was not a bunch of crazy villagers dreaming of world domination is evidenced by the fact that in the 1999 presidential race, George W. Bush turned to them for support. Their meetings were also attended by Dick Cheney (Vice President) and Donald Rumsfeld (Secretary of Defense).

b.w.: START

While Eric was the "printing press" in funding the fledgling company, Al Clark, an 11-year SEAL firearms instructor, designed almost every detail of his venture. In an interview in 1993, when Prince was just starting his military career, Clark claimed that he had already outlined the image of the future company for himself.

The main problem of that time was the lack of training grounds for the Navy, which includes the SEAL unit. They always had to be rented from the Marines or the Army.

In 1996, Clark was transferred to the 8th SEAL Squad as a tactical instructor. Prince, then promoted to lieutenant, was in the first platoon trained by Clark.

It wasn't until a few months later that Clark found out that Erik Prince belonged to the same Prince family. However, the dreams of founding a company were not destined to come true - as you remember, in 1995 the father of the family died, and Eric's wife was diagnosed with cancer. It wasn't business at all.

In a 2006 interview, Eric said that "in the 90s, many specialists had similar thoughts about the need to build private training grounds."

When his father passed away in 1995, Prince still considered staying in the SEAL, but after his wife's health deteriorated, he dropped everything, quit his job, and returned home to support his family and four children.

In 2006, Prince stated: “Many special forces soldiers I knew shared my thoughts about the need for advanced private training facilities. Some of them joined me when I first created BW. After the sale of the family business, I sponsored my own company.”

Prince claimed that the idea for the BW came to him while serving with the 8th SEAL: "I trained all over the world and realized how difficult it is for special forces to undergo modern combat training."

However, some former high-ranking BW employees have claimed that Al Clark actually came up with the idea: "Al came up with everything from start to finish, Eric provided the funding."

BW came into being during the Defense Department's privatization boom from 1989 to 1993 under Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. In his first year in office, Cheney cut the defense budget by $10 billion. He stopped research and development (R&D) funding for a number of complex weapons systems, and also reduced the number of military personnel from 2.2 million to 1, 6 million As Dan Briody wrote in his book The Halliburton Agenda: “In the early 1990s, the army had little dependence on private companies and Cheney was determined to change the status quo. The idea was to let the army fight, and give all logistics to private companies. Besides, it was very good way calm the wave of discontent in society after the next deployment of troops abroad. More “private traders” means fewer regular troops, and less discontent.”

By the time Erik Prince and Al Clark started building BW in the mid-90s, the Department of Defense was undergoing massive layoffs. Training bases, one of the most important components of the military machine, also fell under the distribution. The first president of BW then said: “There is a great demand for high-quality training of military personnel and special forces soldiers, because most of the bases were built during the Second World War and are hopelessly outdated. No one could provide them with modern training grounds.” It was this niche that BW filled in 1996.

At this time, the Republican Party was going through hard times. Clinton's victory in '92 marked the end of the twelve golden years of conservative rule that had been laid by the Reagan administration. Right-wing religious organizations, with whom Prince was very sympathetic, considered the Clinton administration "a leftist regime that supports abortion, homosexuals and opposes family values ​​and religion in the country."

It was in such an unfavorable environment that BW appeared. On December 26, 1996, 3 months after leaving the SEAL, Eric registered the Blackwater Lodge & Training Center. IN next year he bought nearly 2,000 hectares of land in North Carolina. The new brainchild of a worthy representative of the Prinsev family will now be spread out near the town with interesting name Great Dismal Swamp (Great Swamp).

BW may have become a megalodon shark in the mercenary market later on, but early on, the company was desperate to convince the city planning committee of Currituck County, with a population of 20,000, that BW could open a business here. Until September 11, members of the committee were not worried about world terrorism, Islamic radicalism and other horror stories. They were worried about the price of real estate, acceptable noise levels and the ability to protect themselves from crowds of amateurs to shoot at live targets. They had something to worry about - a year earlier, a stray bullet from a local hunter hit the building elementary school during lessons.

As a result, Currituck County turned them down, so Prince went to neighboring Camden County, where he received early approval for his project.

In June 1997, the first work began, and in May 1998 the company officially opened. Although the name Blackwater sounds creepy, it refers to the dark waters of the Great Swamp, near which the BW base is built. Soon after the opening, both former and current SEALs began to flock to the BW, followed by the FBI. Everything was simple - new training grounds, great opportunities for training and a short distance from the place of work (350 km to the FBI headquarters in Washington, 60 km to one of the SEAL bases).

By 1998, BW was doing well - the company taught private and public clients how to own various types firearms(from pistols to assault rifles and machine guns). Some ranges were leased to SEALs for training purposes. Police officers from Virginia, North Carolina and even Canada were trained on BW grounds. The companies were flooded with questions from foreign countries: the Spanish government was interested in training specialists in the protection of presidential candidates, the Brazilian authorities were interested in training in counter-terrorism operations. A BW client wrote to the Virginian Plot newspaper in 1998: "They are the best of the best... it's an honor to come here and learn from the most outstanding people."

By the end of 1998, the BW base included several conference rooms, classrooms, lounges with fireplaces and stuffed animals, a store, a dining room, an armory, a separate room for cleaning weapons and spacious rooms with satellite TV for guests - a paradise for all gun lovers, even by today's standards. In the same year, BW held on its territory a shooting competition among law enforcement agencies and military units, later nicknamed "Shoot-out at BW" (Shoot-out at BW).

The Blackwater Company played essential role in the Iraq War as a contractor for the United States government. In 2003, the first contract was signed to provide protection to the head of the Interim Coalition Administration, Paul Bremer, in the amount of $21 million. According to Erik Prince, 30 employees of the company have been killed since 2003. The total loss of Blackwater in Iraq amounted to about 780 people, these people are not counted in the official statistics of military casualties.

While operating in Iraq, Blackwater was repeatedly suspected of arms smuggling. Loud scandal What happened to the security firm on March 9, 2010 was an investigation into the loss of more than 500 Kalashnikov assault rifles and other weapons from American warehouses in Afghanistan. Allegedly, the Blackwater employee responsible for the missing weapons signed invoices for their withdrawal from the warehouse in the name of South Park cartoon character Eric Cartman.

On September 16, 2010, five members of Xe's management, including chief executive Gary Jackson, were charged with arms trafficking. Officials falsified documents and thus concealed their gift to King Abdullah II of Jordan in the form of 22 weapons, including 17 AK assault rifles seized during a raid in 2008

The Iraqi government sued the US private security company Blackwater, whose employees are suspected of murder in 2007 17 civilians Baghdad. In mid-December 2009, The New York Times reported that Blackwater was involved in kidnappings of people suspected of having links with militants in Iraq.
Six months earlier, the press reported that Blackwater had "special assassination teams" whose goal was to eliminate or capture the leaders of Al-Qaeda. The secret program was halted in July after CIA director Leon Panetta privately informed a number of congressmen about it, while the agency deliberately kept US lawmakers out of it.

In February 2009, the company changed its name to Xe Services LLC (pronounced "Ze"). Xe employees worked legally in Iraq until at least September 2009.

And now, in 2010, the company is once again renamed Academi.

List of abbreviations -b.w. (Blackwater), PMC (private military company), TVD - theater of operations, BD - military operations, AP - Presidential Administration,DoD (Department of Defense) - US Department of Defense, Armed Forces - Armed Forces

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