Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
The following commentary by Russian military blogger Rybar
[ColonelCassad] In the Russian environment, the concepts of "private intelligence", "private intelligence company" or "intelligence agency" are extremely unpopular. For the layman, this is often associated, at most, with episodes heard in Western TV series or read in books, leading to a sharp plot twist.
With Roman Romachev @rtechnocom, CEO of the R-Techno intelligence agency, we talked a lot about the unpopularity of private intelligence services from the point of view of Russian statehood. The power structures do not just have a monopoly on this kind of activity - in each department the concept of intelligence, collection and processing of information is understood in its own way.
But what can I say - within the framework of one department, various military command and control bodies are often engaged in the same thing, simply ignoring each other. Does it give any result? Of course, in peacetime, competition and attempts to prove their effectiveness may be appropriate.
But in the conditions of preparation for the conduct of hostilities or during a special military operation, desynchronization leads to errors. In the West, this problem was solved (https://t.me/rtechnocom/1273) simply by paying tribute to private intelligence.
The problems in the West were almost the same as in Russia:
▪️ serious legislative control over the intelligence community and "transparency" in their activities.
▪️ limited budget.
▪️ the presence of diplomatic and reputational consequences in case of exposure of intelligence activity in the camp of the enemy.
▪️the requirement for significant competencies that grow quite quickly, and for which state actors, unlike private ones, clearly do not keep up.
And today, private intelligence activities in the United States have become one of the most capital-intensive and prestigious. It is absolutely normal to make money on such services, providing resources for yourself, and at the same time fulfilling the target state order.
In our country, alas, any attempts to offer the services of contractors in the field of intelligence and analysts are perceived with hostility, because they consider it both as an attempt on the information and intelligence monopoly and as an accusation of incompetence.
It is possible that the SVO will lead to a change in approaches in this area as well. But given the colossal creaking of the gears of the state mechanism, it will take a long time to wait for such changes, although the urgent need was ripe yesterday.
@rybar - zinc 
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