Gazprom Creates New Mercenary Outfit to Ensure Safety of Pipelines
"Corporations have more power than the government."
Russia is rapidly becoming the most Cyperpunk country in the world.
Russian majority state-owned energy company Gazprom has been authorized to create its own private security outfit, in a move that Ukrainian intelligence says is part of a war-fueled "arms race" to develop a mercenary army.
Russia's government gave its go-ahead for the energy giant to create a private security organization on February 4, under the pretext of securing the country's energy sector.
The decree gives Gazprom 70% control of the resulting company, per Ukrainska Pravda's translation.
Commenting on Tuesday, Ukraine's Ministry of Defence intelligence department said that the move signals intent to mimic the Wagner Group, the notoriously cruel mercenary army run by ally of President Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
I asked around to see if the news was true or just Western agitprop, and one of the Russians in my Russian-language podcast project responded that he could personally confirm the existence of such an outfit.
Hey Rolo.
I have a friend who works at the Lakhta Center in Gazprom. He's a boomer. Retired officer. He served in the army for the first half of his life.
In the fall, we met with him and discussed the news about the mobilization. I asked him, they say that if you are an officer, you should be being called up. To which he replied to me that he would become a mercenary for Gazprom. That Miller signed a decree on the creation of a division of the company's employees. They took him on there voluntarily. As far as I understood from his stories, there were no need for coercion.
One of the reasons, in addition to personal (I will not write about them) why my friend went to this volunteer detachment, is money. Everything is fine with his money, but the detachment pays a lot. During the preparation they pay + the main working salary + travel allowances + something else. Paying and equipping their detachment is not the Russian Defense Ministry, but Gazprom.
Well, the GRU squad oversees it. I asked him why, he said he hadn’t a clue.
Since the end of autumn, they have been going to training camps, to train. In the spring they will go join the SMO.
And there you have it.
Cyberpunk confirmed.