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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Gazprom like Seretech

Posted by: mattness pl Mar 8 2007, 05:53 PM

http://wiadomosci.onet.pl/1496249,10,item.html

Sorry, that's my source and this is in polish (thanks to kepmy from http://shadowrun.rpg.pl for info about this).

The only English source I could find is here (no reference, though):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gazprom#2007

EDIT: http://www.barentsobserver.com/index.php?id=433904&cat=16149&xforceredir=1&noredir=1

Posted by: HullBreach Mar 8 2007, 06:02 PM

Im still wondering how long it will be before we see a 'test case' here in the US. Corporations are essentially an 'artificial person' under the law. The 'test case' will likely occur when some kind of radicalized element attempts to destroy a corporate asset, and the corporation responds with leathal force. There is the potential for them to use a 'self defence' defensive strategy on the part of the artifical person that is the corporate entity.

Hell, one of the easier ways to get a Class 3 firearms permit in the US is to form a corporation, declare yourself as an officer, then purchase the weapons in the name of the corporation. Under federal law, as a corporate officer, you are permitted to maitain these weapons at your place of residence.

Posted by: hyzmarca Mar 8 2007, 07:23 PM

Private corporate militaries are not anything new. Quite the opposite in fact. Heck, way back when Britain was colonizing Africa, Queen Victoria sold Maxim machine guns to De Beers so that they could secure diamond rights in certain areas. These machine guns were then used to slaughter native populations and overthrow native governments in what is now Zambia and Zimbabwe, forming the British Colony of Rhodesia, which was essentially owned and operated by De Beers for quite some time.

The trick to justifying a corporate military is to operate in highly unstable areas far away from any Western democracy. In places where one can expect to be attacked by bands of 8-year-old boys and girls wielding AK-47s and RPGs at any moment without warning, a heavily armed security forces isn't only justifiable, it is also a very good idea.

Posted by: HullBreach Mar 8 2007, 07:38 PM

QUOTE (hyzmarca)

The trick to justifying a corporate military is to operate in highly unstable areas far away from any Western democracy. In places where one can expect to be attacked by bands of 8-year-old boys and girls wielding AK-47s and RPGs at any moment without warning, a heavily armed security forces isn't only justifiable, it is also a very good idea.

Damn profitable too. I looked into doing this kind of work when I first got out of the 'Corps, and six-month contracts pay in the $80-120k USD range.

Of course my family freaked out about it and insisted I go to college instead. So now I pilot a desk as an IT guy.

Posted by: nezumi Mar 8 2007, 08:07 PM

Wow, you can get paid $120k a year selling out to the corps so you can shoot gun-wielding 8-year-olds in exploited third-world nations? Whats the benefits package like?

Posted by: HullBreach Mar 8 2007, 08:36 PM

QUOTE (nezumi)

Wow, you can get paid $120k a year selling out to the corps so you can shoot gun-wielding 8-year-olds in exploited third-world nations? Whats the benefits package like?

Not the best. And that's the problem with that line of work. Besides the ethical issues (I was applying to non-diamond related contracts, mostly executive protection work in central america) if you catch a slug, some of these companies will terminate your contract on the spot, cut you a check, and say "You should probobly have that gaping gunshot wound looked at"

This is an industry where reputation, not just yours but the companies, is all you have to go on. Good example: Blackwater has a fairly good reputation for ethical practices and really goes out of their way to take care of the familes of the wounded or dead. You hear about them constantly, and its usually positive press.

There are other companies out there with bad, bad, bad reputations, but they tend to be awfully litigious google-savvy types so Im not going to name names.

Come to think of it, GM's could probobly learn alot from looking into this industry since shadowrunning is basically a criminalized cottage version of the same basic concepts.

Posted by: FlakJacket Mar 8 2007, 09:32 PM

QUOTE (hyzmarca)

Not quite. IIRC it was the British South Africa Company that went about machine gunning native people and taking their land. Whilst they effectively had pretty much the same people running both of the companies, the BSAC was a dinstinct legal entity from De Beers.

Posted by: Fix-it Mar 9 2007, 03:14 AM

QUOTE (HullBreach)

QUOTE (nezumi @ Mar 8 2007, 03:07 PM)

Wow, you can get paid $120k a year selling out to the corps so you can shoot gun-wielding 8-year-olds in exploited third-world nations? Whats the benefits package like?

hmmm... sounds like there's a niche in the market for a Docwagon-type corporation...

Posted by: imperialus Mar 9 2007, 03:40 AM

Paramilitary "guards" are a lot more common than people realize and not just in Iraq, my dad works for an oil company in one of the more... ethnic* regions in the middle east. For a camp of 200 workers they have around 75 guards. He used to work in Equador and they used military equipment just to get to and from well sites.

*by ethnic I mean crazy tribal

Posted by: mfb Mar 9 2007, 05:14 AM

i make no guarantees as to the veracity of the following, but it sounds cool: i've heard that transportation companies, in some parts of the US, are allowed to maintain paramilitary anti-terrorism units. so what you could do, apparently, is form such a company with a minimal fleet of vehicles, and use your "anti-terrorism unit" to hold/move guns.

Posted by: Kyoto Kid Mar 9 2007, 04:37 PM

...let's just say, you don't want to even think about pulling a stunt on an EL AL plane.

Posted by: JongWK Mar 9 2007, 05:17 PM

In Russia, corps KILL YOU!!!

Posted by: mattness pl Mar 10 2007, 12:24 AM

QUOTE (hyzmarca)

Private corporate militaries are not anything new. Quite the opposite in fact.

There is damn big difference between PCM (even Cheney's Halibutun) and this case.

- Gazprom gain "blessing" from local (Russian - Fuck, Russia is not some small banana republic) government.
- They can SHOOT you even outside the corp territory (to defend oil). And that's legal, if they do that in Russia (it's big country, you know

Posted by: mfb Mar 10 2007, 02:44 AM

now what's going to be fun is when divisions of Gazprom backed (read: owned) by different OC groups start fighting over "oil".