Feral Jundi

Thursday, July 30, 2015

Cool Stuff: A Russian Contractor Gives The Low Down On His Industry

Filed under: Cool Stuff,Russia — Tags: , , , , , , — Matt @ 8:34 AM

After posting my deal on Russia’s PMSC market, I got some interesting feedback from the readership. Specifically, I got a great message on Facebook from a Russian security contractor whom has been working in his industry since 2005. He was kind enough to send me his input about the state of the Russian PMSC market and his opinion on the various players in that market. And as you can see below with his post, the western media tends to put a slant on things. lol

On this blog, I try to cover the international security contracting scene and it can be very difficult to get a good read on the various markets out there. I am an American, and have worked for American companies overseas and that is it. So the market in China or Russia or wherever is not my area of expertise. So like everyone else, I have to count on the available open source information (in english) and the feedback from my readership (which are mostly western). Hopefully this blog can attract the experts in those markets, and get their help on getting the story right. Or at least let them give their side of the story, which is something I try to do for all of the posts here.

With that said, here it is. Also, on a side note, I have never met this individual or worked with them, so I cannot vouch for them personally. Out of respect for the author’s wishes, I have not listed their name here. Enjoy. –Matt

 

Slavonic_Corps_5

Members of the Slavonic Corps in Syria.

 

First of all, I’ve been reading your website and FB for ages. One of the top spots on a web to read about PMSC and all the things related. Thanks a lot for all the effort you put in!

Just recently saw your post on Russian PMSC. With all due respect and understanding that Russian mercs are exotic beasts for your audience, sometimes we get a lot of laughs reading BS about us. ))

I’ve been doing PMSC since 2005 with Russian companies. I’m Russian. V’been in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan and Central Asia. I know what I’m talking about.

Russian PMSC market simply doesn’t exist. RSB Group that you mention is not very big, though they try hard and do some nice online marketing. The only real and good professional team made of Russian mercs today is Moran Security, based in St.Petersburg, and the only cool thing about them is that they really do a lot of cheap marsec jobs in Indian ocean.

And that’s all. All the Russian real business PMSC-market consists of about 50 people and most of them have a dual citizenship (including US, UK, NZ and etc) and we don’t visit Russia for years.

“Grey area” Russian geopolitics and all the blah-blah-blah is for journos.

In Iraq for example Russian oil companies prefer to sign contracts with British PMSC, not Russian PMSC, and thus they justify huge budgets on security. Half of the money they sip off for security fog is nicely landing in Malta and California villas for top-management of Lukoil.

In Iraq in 2009-2011 we’ve done few security jobs for local warlords and Kurds, but not too much of serious staff. Our peak activity was in 2005 when we were securing regular truck convoys going from Turkey to Basra in the south.

In Central Asia small Russian proto-PMSC were simply slaughtered by islamists and in-prisoned by official local intelligence services.

In Syria the infamous Slavonic Corps was a joke. In Russia we are having a lot of giggles reading the western overstated mass-media reports on its “mighty force of 200 fighters”. It’s a joke. Divide by ten. )))

In Afghanistan we had only a couple of small jobs securing convoys very close to the northern border.

UN approached us for a few gigs in Iraq but it didn’t materialized.

As to Ukraine – it has nothing to do with Russian PMSC. All the fighters from Russian side who go to Donbass to fight are tightly controlled by FSB, have FSB-controlled training camps close to the border and they have nothing to do with PMSC, business or market issues. It’s a Russian version of patriotic ideological madness and Russian version of state-controlled ISIS.

We had a few small contracts guarding Russian mineral companies in Africa, but that was on a minor scale as well. Nothing to be proud about.

So for the last 10 years we have no real Russian PMSCs succeeding in international market and all the Russian mercs apart from those 50 people from RSB and Moran Groups today are trying to join some western security companies with very little success.

There is no reason to exaggerate Russian PMSCs presence anywhere as they simply do not exist as business units. But it’s a lot of fun to tickle western audience with fairytales about exotic Russian mercs roaming Middle East and Africa. )))

Once again, thanks a lot for your blogging and info-sharing.

All the best and huge regards, FJ!

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Russia: PMSC’s Operating In A Legal Grey Area

Filed under: France,Industry Talk,Russia,Ukraine — Tags: , , , , — Matt @ 9:10 AM

This is a good little report on the status of Russian PMSC’s, with a mention of the Slavonic Corps debacle. I have written in the past about Russia’s use of PMSC’s and their efforts on legalizing it. But as the report mentions, Russia also benefits from keeping their industry in the legal grey area of war fighting. Especially if you see how ‘volunteers’ (who are paid by the way) are being used in places like the Ukraine. It is not too much of  a stretch for Russia to just outright contract out various aspects of their war there.

While he says his fighters are “volunteers” rather than mercenaries, they are paid salaries: from $1,000 per month for a low-ranking enlisted man to $2,000 to $4,000 for officers. Yefimov did not answer the reporter’s question about who pays the salaries.

Ukraine’s government says more than 10,000 Russian mercenaries form the bulk of the Russian proxy forces that the Kremlin has used to sponsor the creation of the separatist “people’s republics” in parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk provinces. Many fighters are motivated by the propaganda of the Kremlin-controlled media, Yefimov says.

“Our press and television present the dramatic facts. The Russian people cannot tolerate the terror that the fascists have staged there [in Ukraine]. Killing women, children and the elderly. Most of those who go [to fight] are sensitive and empathetic; they want to help. This is especially true for people from 40 to 60 years of age, who were brought up under Soviet traditions.” Other fighters go because they miss the adrenaline of war or to earn money, he said.

Although for using Russian PMSC’s on the international market, they will have to have some protections. Compared to the west’s market of force, they have a lot of catching up to do.

With that said, one area that interests me is Assad’s manpower issues in Syria. Will we see more Slavonic Corps type contracts pop up where Russian PMSC’s answer the manpower call in Syria? We will see. Russian PMSC’s are already doing the maritime security game, and operating in the middle east protecting oil company facilities and their employees.

The one company mentioned in this video was RSB. The key thing the president mentioned was the legalities of operating as a PMSC. That Russian law has it’s roots from the Byzantine era, and that whatever is not explicitly banned, is legal. So operating outside of the country as a PMSC, is not explicitly banned in his view. Interesting comment, although as you can see with the Slavonic Corps, you can still be thrown in prison for such activities–based on the whims of their government.

He also mentioned he could raise an army of  1,000 plus troops, which is typical talk from a company CEO. If you have the attention of journalists, you always want to promote capability when you can. lol

Also, they cut the youtube video a little short. For the full video, go here. –Matt

 

RSB contractor.

RSB contractor performing maritime security.

 

 

Russia’s private military firms operate in legal grey area

July 28, 2015

Since the conflict in Ukraine began, Kiev and the West have accused Russians of participating on a massive scale. The Kremlin denies sending professional troops to Ukraine and insists the Russian citizens there are volunteers who have signed up to help the separatists. Increasingly, experts are pointing to the presence of a third category of fighters: the employees of private military companies, or PMCs.

While the private security industry is well established in the United States – with globally recognised brands such as Academi (formerly Blackwater) – Russia has never legalised their use. That could be about to change, however, as Russian PMCs certainly do exist and are now active internationally.

Programme prepared by Patrick Lovett and Elom Marcel Toble.

By Gulliver CRAGG , Ksenia BOLCHAKOVA

Monday, July 13, 2015

Industry Talk: GardaWorld Buys Aegis Group For Expansion Into Africa And ME

This is some big news. Both GardaWorld and Aegis are big companies, and this is more sign of consolidation in the industry as the market compresses. The Iraq and Afghanistan wars have drawn down significantly since the hey day of contracting, and moves like this signal the latest strategies of the major companies–if they want to survive.

I first found out about Aegis shopping around for buyers from Intelligence Online. It has a paywall, but what little they said in the brief description is all I needed to know. As for GardaWorld, here is a snap shot from Wikipedia as to their size and status. Pretty big..

GardaWorld Security Corporation is a Canadian private security firm, based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with 45,000 employees (by November 2013). Though GardaWorld International Protective Services, now the international division of the company, began its operations in 1984, Garda World Security Corporation was established by its Quebecer owner Stéphan Crétier in 1995, who initially invested $25,000 in the company, then named Trans-Quebec Security Inc. The company is the fifth largest consulting and security services firm in the world, with operations in North America, Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The company today runs heavily on physical security guard services as well as armoured car services in select countries and cities throughout the world. The firm has over 200 offices worldwide.

And then here is the size of Aegis and what they do, based on their Who We Are page on their site. The CEO is Tim Spicer by the way, who used to own Sandline International.

Aegis is today a diverse and comprehensive organisation operating in countries spread across several continents in a variety of service streams.
Founded in 2002, Aegis was established as a US government security provider from 2004, when it was awarded the ground-breaking Reconstruction Security Support Services Iraq (RSSS-I) contract with the US Department of Defense. The $1.3 billion lifetime value of this contract made it one of the largest security contracts ever awarded.
The experience and ethos built during the RSSS-I contract, and a range of other government and commercial contracts in Iraq, allowed Aegis to transition to the Security Support Services Iraq (SSS-I) contract, and to secure and successfully mobilise the security for the US Embassy Kabul, a project which currently employs over 1000 people.
The definition and requirements of security are ever changing. In recent years, we have grown a successful security service business in support of the extractives industry, focused initially on the Oil and Gas sectors in Iraq, but expanding into East and North Africa. We have also been in the vanguard of developing comprehensive business practices and ethical codes of conduct for the security industry and as such we are one of the first companies to become accredited to the industry standard (PSC 1).
Aegis now provides a wide breadth of complementary service streams including Kidnap for Ransom Response, technology integration, advisory and intelligence, training, consultancy, strategic communications and protective services. Across these areas we employ over 3500 people at any one time and run a fleet of over 300 vehicles.

That is 48,500 plus or minus employees and contractors!… Quite the army. lol

As to the details of this acquisition, I will post what the companies have sent out for PR. The news release mentioned a couple of interesting things. First is the fact that both companies are the first to be PSC-1 certified. The second interesting tidbit is that the new company wants to hit the African and Middle Eastern markets hard with their services. Aegis will definitely bring a lot to the table when it comes to those regions.

I have written in the past about GardaWorld and their goals in the middle east, and I view this as further proof of those plans drawn up by CEO Stephan Crétier. Although they have had some hiccups and the whole Daniel Menard episode in Afghanistan was one example. I also found an article that talked about how the draw down of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fierce competition between those that were still on the scene, has resulted in companies like GardaWorld to ‘be competitive’. In other words, lowering salaries and hiring cheaper labor–something we have seen in the maritime security market as well. 

One final note. I have no idea if everyone that is working for Aegis now, will have to change t-shirts and wear the GardaWorld crest?…  Or if all the benefits and pay scales will change, now that Aegis has a new owner. We will see how that goes and that process can be kind of crappy for the employees and contractors of said company.

Sometimes with these things, the parent company likes to keep the newly acquired company intact with the same name and everything. Just different owners with a little crossover of upper and mid- management. But who knows, and we will see how the acquisition goes? I will leave it to those employees, contractors, upper management, etc. in the comments below to explain how things are going. –Matt

 

 

GardaWorld Announces Strategic Expansion to Become the Premier Security Provider in Africa and the Middle East

As part of its expansion, the company signs a binding agreement for the acquisition of Aegis Group

MONTREAL, QUEBEC–(July 13, 2015) – GardaWorld, the world’s largest privately owned security and cash services provider, announces today the strategic expansion of its protective services platform in Africa and the Middle East.

Over the past decade GardaWorld has continuously expanded its operational capacity as demand for specialized and professional services to protect high profile diplomatic staff, development projects and leading oil & gas companies dramatically increased in Africa and the Middle East. In the current geopolitical context, such comprehensive security services offering remains critical for companies and governments operating in the region and GardaWorld has committed to become a premier security provider globally. The company expects to complete this phase of its strategic expansion plan before the end of the year.

As the first phase of its strategic expansion, GardaWorld is pleased to announce that it has entered into a binding agreement for the acquisition of Aegis Group, a leading provider of highly specialized protective services with annual run-rate revenues of over CAN$450 million with a presence across 10 African and Middle East emerging markets.

“Aegis Group’s operational platform will complement GardaWorld’s offering and geographic footprint as we continue to build our protective services capabilities throughout Africa and the Middle East,” said Stephan Crétier, Founding President and CEO, GardaWorld. “Aegis Group and GardaWorld have both been truly committed to setting the highest professional and ethical standards in the industry. We are the first two private security providers in the world to obtain the PSC.1 certification, offering our clients a complete peace of mind service solution in emerging markets. Once we have completed the integration, we will become a clear market leader, providing premier professional security services with the unsurpassed depth of our offering and strength of our global platform.”

“In the next phase of our growth strategy, planned for later this year, we expect to further expand GardaWorld’s regional infrastructure and to double our physical footprint by reinforcing our presence on the ground in nearly 20 countries in Africa and the Middle East. Our goal is to offer a specialized and distinctive protective services offering, to more clients, including governments, diplomatic organizations, large critical infrastructures, mining, oil & gas companies, NGOs and Fortune 500 corporates, in more places and where they need us most than any other company in our market,” continued Mr. Crétier.

GardaWorld’s acquisition of Aegis Group is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and is expected to close within the next 90 days.

(more…)

Monday, July 6, 2015

Film: Sicario

This looks good. I have written in the past about the brutality of the drug war in Mexico, and the all out warfare that the cartels conduct against one another. Finally it looks like Hollywood is willing to go down south and explore this brutality. The director is Denis Villeneuve and his work is pretty intense.

The film will be in theaters September 18, 2015 and it will star Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Brolin, Victor Garber and Jon Bernthal. It has already shown in the Cannes Film Festival and it did really well. –Matt

 

poster_fullsize

Website for the film here.

In Mexico, SICARIO means hitman.

In the lawless border area stretching between the U.S. and Mexico, an idealistic FBI agent [Emily Blunt] is enlisted by an elite government task force official [Josh Brolin] to aid in the escalating war against drugs.

Led by an enigmatic consultant with a questionable past [Benicio Del Toro], the team sets out on a clandestine journey forcing Kate to question everything that she believes in order to survive.

A Lionsgate presentation, a Black Label Media presentation, a Thunder Road production, a Denis Villeneuve film.

Books: Composite Warfare, By Eeben Barlow

Right on! This is the highly anticipated book written by Eeben Barlow about his thoughts on how to conduct warfare on the African continent. Be sure to check out his blog post about the book over at his site, because he certainly will be answering some questions about it there.

As for an actual shipping date for the book, that is still to be determined and the publisher will have more on that I am sure. The date below says September 19 for the published date, so perhaps in September some time? But you can pre-order now and definitely get in line. Check it out. –Matt

Edit: 09/18/2016 – The book is now for sale and shipping at 30 South Publishers. You can buy the book here.

Website for STTEP is here. (Eeben’s company)

 

51WBQY+gxHL

Composite Warfare: The Conduct of Successful Ground Forces Operations in Africa
By Eeben Barlow
Price: $49.95
Product Description
As a continent, Africa presents her armies with a vast, dynamic and multidimensional operating environment. It has numerous complex and diverse ethnic, religious, cultural and tribal interests and loyalties, along with many multifaceted threat-drivers coupled to varied and infrastructure-poor terrain plus vast climatic variations. The continent is, furthermore, characterized by numerous half-won conflicts and wars fought by incorrectly structured, inadequately trained and ill-equipped armies. For many reasons, these forces have difficulty adapting to the complex, demanding and rapidly changing environments they do battle in. Similarly, the armies have difficulty in decisively defeating the various threats they face. Many of these problems stem from the fact that numerous modern-day African armies are merely clones of the armies established by their once-colonial masters, their Cold War allies or their new international allies. Many of the principles and tactics, techniques and procedures they were – and still are – being taught relate to fighting in Europe and not in Africa. Some of these concepts are not even relevant to Africa.

This book is intended as a guide and textbook for African soldiers and scholars who wish to understand the development of hostilities, strategy, operational design, doctrine and tactics. It also illustrates the importance of nonpartisanship and the mission and role of the armed forces. Officers, NCOs and their subordinates need to, furthermore, understand their role in defending and protecting the government and the people they serve. They additionally need to know how to successfully accomplish their numerous missions with aggression, audacity, boldness, speed and surprise. The book provides the reader with valuable information relating to conventional and unconventional maneuver. It also discusses how African armies can, with structured and balanced forces, achieve strategic, operational and tactical success. It covers the role of government along with operations related to war, operations other than war and intelligence operations and how these operations, operating in a coordinated and unified manner, can secure and strengthen a government. ## Composite Warfare draws on the author’s experiences and lessons in Central, Southern, East, West and North Africa where he has served numerous African governments as a politico-military strategist, division commander, division adviser, battalion commander and special operations commander.

Product Details
• Amazon Sales Rank: #437301 in Books
• Published on: 2015-09-19
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .79″ h x 6.14″ w x 9.21″ l, 2.15 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 576 pages
Buy the book here.

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress