Russian Private Military Companies: Russian Security Systems

RSB-Group, also known as Russian Security Systems, is a Russian company providing security services in unstable regions worldwide, functioning effectively as a Russian private military company.

The organisation maintains a regional office in Senegal and representative offices in Turkey, Germany, and Italy.

The company specializes in demining operations, competitive intelligence and analytics, armed security, and protection of civilian maritime vessels against piracy in the Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Guinea, Malacca Strait, and other areas. Employees of RSB-Group participated in demining one of Libya’s largest cement plants in Benghazi, owned by Libyan Cement Company, with the contract reportedly worth 10 million dollars according to media sources.

According to disputed UN data, during the Libyan conflict, the company’s specialists allegedly provided maintenance and repair services for military aircraft belonging to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s army. In August 2020, company employees repelled an attack on the Libyan embassy in Minsk, though they later entered into conflict with the diplomatic mission and even attempted to seize it themselves.

Against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, RSB-Group was added to Canada’s sanctions list on April 8, 2022, for “supporting the Russian military” and as accomplices to “the pain and suffering caused by Vladimir Putin’s senseless war in Ukraine”.

On June 28, 2022, the company appeared on the United States sanctions list targeting “Putin’s war machine,” with the Office of Foreign Assets Control stating that RSB-Group is a private military company closely linked to Russian intelligence services, recruiting highly qualified Russian special forces fighters including veterans of Russian security services, and providing global services for Russian companies in close coordination with the FSB, including servicing military aircraft in Libya.

On December 18, 2023, the company was included in the European Union’s sanctions list as a Russian private military company facilitating Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine by training Russian soldiers and special forces fighters for the war in Ukraine.

RSB-Group faces sanctions from Ukraine, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom on similar grounds.