Kalkan
Kalkan (Iradi: "shield"; Russian: ЧОП «Калкан») is the largest private security company in Irad, based in Nurzhan. It was founded in 2009, when NurGaz spun off its security department, and it is owned by its founder, Anatoly Grebenshchikov. It has about 4,800 licensed guards, about 1,900 of them licensed to carry arms, and it also runs armed cash transport.[1]
History
Grebenshchikov, born in Kobozev in 1957, was a Soviet militia officer before he became NurGaz's director of security in 1994. In February 2007, when Erlan Toktarov proclaimed the Irad Special Economic Zone in Nurzhan, he organized the refinery workers who guarded NurGaz's installations. During the Second Iradi Civil War the security department was trained by contractors of the American company Blackwater USA (see Blackwater in Irad).[2] In 2009 NurGaz spun the department off as an independent company under Grebenshchikov. Its overseas arm, Kalkan International, registered in Dubai in 2014, recruits Iradi men for security work in the Gulf states.[1]
Operations
Kalkan guards the NurGaz oil fields, the Nurzhan Oil Refinery and the Northern Export Feeder, the branches of Chuy Commercial Bank, the stores of Jıldız Market, the compounds of foreign companies and many factories in Nurzhan. It also provides the stewards at the NurGaz Stadium, the home ground of Neftchi Nurzhan. NurGaz is its largest client. Most of its staff are Russian-speaking former soldiers and police officers.[1]
Reputation
Commentators close to the Democratic Party of Irad call Kalkan "NurGaz's army", and the business press groups it with the Nurzhan business circle around the NurGaz president, Kamran Bekzatov, although NurGaz holds no shares in it. The company describes itself as "a licensed commercial service".[3]
References
- ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Commercial Directory: Business Services. Talas.
- ^ Eurasian Political Quarterly (2016). 'Pipeline Guards: Private Security Contractors in the Second Iradi Civil War.' Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 41–67.
- ^ Irad Times (2024). 'NurGaz's Army? Kalkan and the Nurzhan Business Circle.' Talas.