A PMC Member: А Mercenary or a Military Professional

The presence of legal uncertainty in the status of a professional military of a private military campaign leads to real risks of classifying them as mercenaries. The article provides concrete examples of the development of a common regulatory platform for the legal regulation of the status of fighters of private military companies (hereinafter — PMCs) on the example of international conventions and the experience of individual states. The analysis carried out indicates the need to apply the accumulated international experience to legally consolidate the legal status of a PMCs employee in national legislation, since they do not fall under the definition of a mercenary existing in the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation. In addition to the problems outlined in the article, there are other legal aspects. Thus, neither international cooperation nor the national legislation of most States are yet ready to unify the approach to determining the legal basis for the use of mercenary armed formations to solve internal problems and their use outside the State.