The provided text examines PMC Patriot, a private military company established by the Russian Ministry of Defence in 2018 to counterbalance the Wagner Group's growing autonomy. It highlights Patriot's elite recruitment of military professionals, its deep integration with state command structures like the MoD and GRU, and its focus on specialized missions such as VIP protection and reconnaissance across Syria and Africa. The text further discusses Patriot's participation in conventional warfare during the Battle of Vuhledar in Ukraine, marking a shift in its operational profile. Ultimately, with Wagner's decline, Patriot has become a template for a more centralized, state-controlled PMC model, allowing Russia to project force while aiming to prevent future challenges to state authority, albeit with reduced plausible deniability.

Research done with the help of artificial intelligence, and presented by two AI-generated hosts.