Bringing this post up as I think these new PMCs are going to be a factor in the upcoming warlord cage match. I had not heard too much aside from Putin adding his blessing to encourage these new forces. Which still dumbfounds me that he would continue to empower a faction build up. Instead of trying to consolidate the chain of command he is instead fragmenting his power.
Now I can see certain positives with this initiative:
1) Secret mobilization - allows deployment of existing security personnel without utilizing an official 2nd wave of mobilization.
2) Offset costs - forces PMCs to shoulder most of the burden of recruitment/salary/equipment costs.
3) Administrative structure - bypasses the need for governmental red tape and utilizes existing corporate hierarchy to handle the fine print.
4) Weaken Wagner - by advocating new PMCs, Putin is clearly limiting the funding and resources for Priggy.
However it is just insane to me that he does not consider all of the drawbacks:
1) Fragmented chain of command - the existing COC has been horrible and adding in multiple players is just going to detoriate further. I wonder if this is also a sign that they may not have enough leadership structure to even train and utilize these new bodies in the regular army in the first place.
2) Corruption will continue - who knows how many of those recorded mercs are actually available on the front? Guaranteed that these companies will over report the number of bodies available for duty.
3) Legitimizes factions - this has made it very legal for private businesses to expand on their security forces. They have time to organize trainers, equipment, and build together teams with more advanced tactics than what would normally be acceptable. While not at the same level of experience as Wagner it is a big first step for building a functional fight force that has inherent loyalty to the company and not the state.
Now Gazprom is a state business and essentially another wallet for Putin, making those PMCs nominally his private army but there have got to be other oligarchs building up their forces. Teaming up with other mafia muscle to cement a survival plan for once vova Putin bites a bullet. They may not all be ambitious in securing the top spot but they are definitely trying to preserve their fiefdoms. If not actively knocking out competitors they will be muscled up to stop unplanned launches from their penthouse's windows. It is going to be nuts trying to keep track off all the potential players once this pops off. Putin/Shoigu/Gerisimov/Prigozhin/Kadyrov are the big names at this point. What other names are going to pop up over the next couple of years?