The spoils of conflict

ACCORDING to Russian news outlets, the Syrian government has contracted with private Russian companies that have Kremlin connections to carry out security operations for the Assad regime in Syria in exchange for a share of oil, gas and mineral production in territory won back from rebels. Sending private security services to fight for spoils on foreign land adds an insidious dimension to an ugly conflict.

According to the Russian news site Fontanka, one company, Evro Polis, working with a private security group called Wagner – suspected of operating in eastern Ukraine and whose founder is under US sanctions – stands to get a 25 percent share of oil and natural gas produced on territory it recaptures from Islamic State. Evro Polis was registered a year ago and is part of a network of firms owned by Evgeniy Prigozhin, a Kremlin caterer close to President Vladimir Putin. Another Russian company, Stroytransgaz, got rights to mine phosphate in Syria in exchange for guarding the area.

When Fontanka questioned the Ministry of Energy, the response was the deals are “corporate secrets”. But when Fontanka asked a security consultant about these kinds of deals, the consultant expressed no surprise. “War is business,” he was quoted as saying.

It might also be expected that Russia, which has supported Assad from the outset of the civil war, would play a role in restoring oil production. (The US and the EU have barred the import of Syrian oil since 2011.) It is also a way for Russia to expand its presence in Syria, where it is competing with Iran for postwar influence.

But the Evro Polis deal goes beyond the notion of outsourcing security or reconstruction. Pushing back IS and denying it access to oil may be in everyone’s interest, but turning the fight into a private scramble for profit is a dangerous and ignoble gambit.