There's a REASON you don't privatise the military.

This is a reason every classics scholar knows. Because once your army is payable, they don't answer to you any more. A lot of emperors thought the Praetorian Guard were there to serve them. Nope buddy, you are only emperor so long as the gold keeps flowing.

Russia also has a long history. Of bully boys who chanced their hand. An ice pick here, an execution there.... not everyone gets to be Stalin, but Stalin did and Putin did, and when the chips are down, you want to be the guy with the men who will do anything. For money. For the promise of unleashing the beast. Its not the first time or the last time people opened the prisons, paid the worst of the worst to do the unthinkable, the unconscionable.

And now here it comes, down the road. Armed and angry, hubris.

The fifth horseman.