Decoding the Legacy: Alexey Badikov and the Evolution of Moran Security Group Ltd.

Who Is Alexey Badikov of Moran Security Group ?

Alexander HarrisJune 16, 2024

0 2,593 3 minutes read

Alexey Badikov and the Evolution of Moran Security Group Ltd

Moran Security Group Ltd (Moran) offers armed security services and has operated under contract to Russian state-owned enterprises.Russian national Alexey Badikov is Moran’s Chief Executive Officer.

Kremlin’s 1st Private Military Company : Alexey Badikov ‘s “Moran Security Group”

Eeben Barlow, a South African military leader and founder of Executive Outcomes, the world’s first legal private military company (PMC), may have planted the seed for PMCs in Russia. In 2010, while attending the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Barlow reportedly presented the concept to Russia’s Defense Ministry, proposing the formation of PMCs staffed by veterans and contractors.

Moran Security Group, a Russian security firm established in 2011 under Alexey Badikov’s leadership, aimed to tackle the pressing issue of Somali piracy by protecting private ships. However, their efforts were hampered by competition and a lack of understanding of the regional complexities. This culminated in the arrest of their crew onboard the Myre Seadiver in Nigeria in October 2012.

According to its website, the Moran Security Group provides a variety of contract security services, including armed escort of ships,provision of sophisticated offshore threat data and analysis, logistics in the maritime environment in conditions of piracy or naval acts, customs and border control and intelligence operations.

MSG has experience in the Middle East, including in Iraq where, according to its website, in 2010 it “facilitated the collection of delinquent payment for equipment supplied to one of the Ministries. We interfaced with the Ministry and the Central Bank of Iraq and ensured the payment of the debt.”

Moran is registered primarily in Belize City in 2011. It was also registered in Russia very same year.

According to available registry documents, Moran’s director is Aleksey Badikov about whom almost nothing is known other than he is being the chief executive of Moran since 2009 (even though Moran was registered in 2011).

Boris Chikin is credited among the founders. Hailing from Saint Petersburg, he served as an instructor in the 1980s in Dushanbe (Tajikistan) where he functioned as an instructor to train mountain riflemen special units that is to be deployed in Afghanistan. Later in 1993, he graduated from Israel Security Academy (supposedly ISA Israel).

Evgeniy Sidorov acted as the director of the Moscow-based branch with an apparent but not established military background (again, there is limited data to track his background).

Searching the background of these three figures, two peculiarities strike the eye. First, while non of the three leading names of Moran known or documented to be entrepreneurs or achieved wealth before Moran, they succeed in founding and running a well-operating international military security provider which now has a number of its own ships sailing in international waters and used in jobs contracted. Second, Moran, for its long years in business, avoided successfully appearing in any sanctions lists till now and held seemingly a clean international record. The company also takes good care to fit well with the anti-mercenary laws of the Russian Federation.

Moran consisted of a “consortium” of smaller companies and even had a “marine” branch, which owned a number of vessels, Ratibor (ESU2529), Maagen (E5U2139), Anchor 1 (E5U2491) and Deo Juvante (E5U2630). The company offered a much broader set of services than the “standard packages,” with some Russian sources even claiming that “one of the company’s clients was Bashar al-Assad.”

Slavonic Corps Limited (2013) was a PMC created by members of the Moran and sent to Syria to fight on the side of al-Assad and protect business interests of certain oligarchs. It was destroyed near al-Sukhnah in eastern Syria, not far from Homs.

On 12 June, 2024, Alexey Badikov was added to the Sanctions List by US. It reads as “

The following Russia-based persons were designated pursuant to E.O. 14024 for operating or having operated in the defense and related materiel sector of the Russian Federation economy: