Private armies in Russia on the rise: Kadyrov and Prigozhin compete for power

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law that allows the recruitment of people with outstanding convictions for serious crimes into the army. Before that, Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin hired prisoners of penal colonies as mercenaries for his PMC 'Wagner'. Although operation of private military companies in Russia is prohibited and being a mercenary is a crime. On the other hand, Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya has up to 30 thousand combatants, loyal to him in the first hand. Whether a conflict between the official Russian federal army and private military groups is possible – our journalists tried to find out.