Prigozhin was on bad terms with Russia's military. I don't.

In this context, mutually exclusive would mean that Prigozhin's feud with the Russian military could preclude Prigozhin being compromised by a third party. It doesn't.


>bin Laden/Mujahideen were not mercenaries, and your theory is not consistent at all with what occurred in Afghanistan.



Ok so, this is Article 47 of the "Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977" that defines mercernaries in international law:

https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/api-1977/article-47

"2. A mercenary is any person who:

(a) is specially recruited locally or abroad in order to fight in an armed conflict;

(b) does, in fact, take a direct part in the hostilities;

(c) is motivated to take part in the hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and, in fact, is promised, by or on behalf of a Party to the conflict, material compensation substantially in excess of that promised or paid to combatants of similar ranks and functions in the armed forces of that Party;

(d) is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict;

(e) is not a member of the armed forces of a Party to the conflict; and

(f) has not been sent by a State which is not a Party to the conflict on official duty as a member of its armed forces."


^I think Osama BL clearly met multiple criteria, from funding insurgents (it seems you want to split hairs about the US/West-supported Mujahideen and the neighboring Arabs Bin Laden independently supported to fight alongside them, but I don't see why if they fought in alliance against the Soviets) with his own money early on, to the role he played recruiting and organizing volunteers to form Al-Q (https://web.archive.org/web/20201101121742/https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna3340101 , https://web.archive.org/web/20151028002646/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1670089.stm. ). The allegations of US training and weapons support have been floating around for a while and printed by reputable Western media outlets.

You seem to have a problem with my word choices... Would you have preferred that I use the term warlord? Bc I'm cool with that. Use whatever term you need to characterize the traits Osama BL, Charles Taylor, and Prigozhin have in common.