CLOAK AND CABINET

Private military companies, or PMCs, have been around for hundreds of years. Colloquially known as mercenaries, these are soldiers that fight for money. They don't have allegiance to any political party, religion or state. Their only allegiance is to cold, hard cash. As such, using these services makes it easy and clear. Money in exchange for a range of services like protection and security, trainings or support for official armed forces. But, on the other hand, this also makes mercenaries dangerous. They work without parameters, and have nobody to answer to. As they are private contractors, they only have themselves to listen to. So, how ethical is it to use these PMCs? What are the benefits? And, lastly, what are the pitfalls a country might find with these operators? WHAT IS A PRIVATE MILITARY COMPANY? Essentially, a PMC, as they are better known, are security companies that provide the same services as traditional armed forces, governmental security personnel, or poli...

This week, tensions in Ukraine has grown at an all time high as it faces an invasion from Russia. President Vladimir Putin has shown the world that he will not back down from the threat of forcibly occupying Ukraine, and repeating history like with Crimea in 2014. As the Unites States scramble with diplomatic talks and financial sanctions, the question on everybody's lips is: Will he actually do it, or was it all smoke and mirrors? RUSSIAN TROOPS AND EQUIPMENT Current Ukrainian intelligence estimates that there are about 127,000 Russian troops near the border. Sources say that Russia could double the amount of troops in a very short time, if needed. Part of this is 21,000 air force and navy personnel, and includes a whole host of military weaponry including: infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled guns and tanks.    Russian military build up of equipment and personnel near the Ukrainian border. (Source: Maxar Tech.) In the past five days, military equipment and personnel de...

Kazakhstan  has been making headlines this week with escalating protests that have been sparked by growing gas prices. People are not happy with the current regime and treatment of citizens. While turmoil was happening on the streets, President Tokayev had called unto Kremlin to help restore peace in the country.  What is Russia doing in Kazakhstan?  The country has more than enough resources, and military power, to calm down its own internal conflicts. What is also interesting is that President Putin answered the cry for help almost immediately. So let's take a look at what is going on with this crazy situation and try to answer the question of what the hell is Russia doing! Kazakhstan's flag WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON IN KAZAKHSTAN? Public outcry had started on New Year's Day after the price of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) had increased immensely over a period of a few months. Residents in the town of Zhanaozen started to protest when they realised that the price of this c...

In this series, we have covered the poisonings of Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia Skripal. We explored the events that led up to the pair comatose on a park bench and fighting for their lives. In Part 3 , we looked at how two individuals, Ruslan Boshirov and Alexander Petrov, where responsible for the attack. Eventually, investigative journalists found that Ruslan Boshirov was GRU Colonel Anatoliy Vladimirovich Chepiga, and Alexander Petrov was, in fact, Alexander Mishkin. He is a doctor in the GRU.  In the final instalment of this series, we will have a look at the devastating death of Dawn Sturgess. A British national that thought she got some nice perfume as a present, but instead it was a death sentence. We will also check what the international and British reaction was to these tragic events.  DAWN STURGESS  On June 30th, Charlie Rowley found a bottle of perfume called Premier Jour by Nina Ricci. It was wrapped up in plastic, so he thought he scored a goo...

In Part 2 of the series, we had a look at the family moving to England and finished with Sergei and Yulia lying on a park bench, foaming at the mouth and comatose. They have been exposed to the deadly nerve agent, Novichok. In this post, we will take an in-depth look at Novichok and also at the two perpetrators of this crime, and the events that transpired.  NOVICHOK AGENTS  Novichok agents are a group of deadly nerve agents that have been developed in the Soviet Union, under their poisons program. ( We covered this in THIS post.) They were developed under a programme with the codename FOLIANT.  Examples of structures of Novichok agents  The Novichok agents first came to media awareness when a Russian chemist, Dr Vil Mirzayanov reported on their existence to Russia media in the 1990s. He wrote about it in his book, State Secrets, and even published the chemical formula. He moved to the USA around the same time, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the s...

"A person gives over his whole life for his homeland and then some bastard comes along and betrays such people. How will he be able to look into the eyes of his children, the pig. Whatever they got in exchange for it, those 30 pieces of silver they were given, they will choke on them. Believe me!”  Mr. Putin, practically snarling, said when asked to comment about the swap on live television.  Mr Vladimir Putin, President of Russia  In Part 1 , we left off with Mr Sergey Skripal being taken to USA on a private plane after being exchanged in a swap, together with 3 other people. OPERATION GHOST STORIES After years of observation and gathering intelligence, the FBI (US Federal Bureau of Investigations) led a sting against 10 Russia sleeper agents on June 27, 2010. Instead of putting them in jail, the US government decided that it was worth it to swap these 10 spies back to Russia for 4 people that the US was interested in. The idea was to do this swap and then this whole epi...