[NorseViking]

‘ChVK’ or private military companies are more an annoyance than allies to the Russian military there.
These are actually illegal in Russia and mostly registered in offshores or working under guise of ‘ChOP’ or private security firms.
There is an article 359 in a Russian criminal code criminalizing any participation in non-government military organization other that home-defence militia.
Although there is a powerful lobby pushing to legalize it.

[Navy Patriot]

I was wondering why AP passively explored Russian private contractors while the story was about the action of the Duma to expose them and bring them under control of law.

Turns out it is AP propaganda to discredit the Russian Military and State for the actions of some of their petro private companies.