Here's one that passed me by: Gazprom, the great bloated Russian tumor on the energy market, has a private army (so also Transneft, the pipeline monopoly). Or at least I think it does; there were a bunch of stories in the foreign press back in 2007 saying that the Duma was authorizing it; later references are more sketchy. Indeeed the only reason I have to doubt it is that it so obviously should be true--which is basis enough, I suspect, to be taken by surprise.
In a narrow sense, there may be less here than meets the eye. Gazprom's primary area of operation is around the Gulf of Ob in the frozen wasteland on Russia's northern border. It's a space peopled by a thin scattering of indigenous peoples and perhaps a larger cohort of Gazprom employees and you can be sure that Gazprom would run all the policing in that area even if it were nominally public. The more interesting question is how far Gazprom's military force engages in foreign adventures, as Gazprom continues to insinuate itself into energy enterprises around the world.
Private armies anywhere are enough to scare any thoughtful observer, and Gazprom in particular has a growing rep for being a corporate bad boy. The flip side is that to all appearances Gazprom is so corrupt and inefficient that it is hard to imagine getting an army right. Of course, as in corrupt and inefficient nations, it may be the army that finally steps into management as if to set things right.
H/T Edward Lucas.
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