Russian war veterans are demanding that President Vladimir Putin take adequate steps to legalize private military companies. In a statement sent to the Russian leader, the veterans demanded not only the legalization of these private soldiers, but also an official recognition that Russian contractors are involved in the Syrian conflict.

The veterans sent the document to the presidential administration as well as to Russia’s Supreme Court. The statement had been signed by a group of veterans, including retired Col. Gen. Leonid Ivashov, the former head of the Defense Ministry’s Directorate General for International Military Cooperation (1996-2001); Vladimir Petrov, the head of the Honor and Homeland international public organization; and Evgeny Shabaev, the committee chairman of the Russian Officer Congress. The statement stressed that over the course of three years, veterans' organizations had been receiving complaints from soldiers wounded in Syria who do not have access to the government’s social, rehabilitation and economic support as they do not have any legal status.

The issue of legalizing these mercenaries has been a topic of discussion in Russia for many years. Currently, private contractors’ activities are outlawed by an article of the Russian Criminal Code prohibiting mercenary groups. The private soldiers are not recognized as war veterans and can’t enjoy similar privileges. Russian politicians have long been involved in lengthy, fruitless debates about negative and positive consequences of the legalization of mercenaries. Yet when first the war in the east of Ukraine had fired up, and later, when Russia launched its campaign in Syria, the problem became especially pressing.

Sources in Russian veterans' organizations’ claim that private military company officers who are Russian are also operating in the Central African Republic, Sudan, Yemen and Libya. This reportedly includes not only the notorious Wagner Group but, as the veterans' statement mentions, Patriot, a brand-new private military firm.