One of the least attractive features of Moscow these days is the ubiquitous presence of armed men in camouflage jackets, hovering menacingly by the entrances of business premises, apartment blocks or parking lots.


Sadly, their presence is inevitable and indeed necessary, given the rising level of crime and the evident inability of the designated law and order organs to deal with it. It is unfortunately a fact of life in the new Russia that if you have something valuable and you want to keep it, you have to hire the muscle to ensure that you do.


The trouble is that the line between legal security and illegal protection is extremely hazy. This is the case anywhere in the world, but the absence of clearly defined limits on the activities of such operations in Russia makes it all the harder to distinguish between the reputable organizations and the racketeers.


Private security vans with flashing blue lights are free to flout traffic rules, assuming a privilege denied even to ambulances on emergency calls. Men in flak-jackets wielding an assortment of weapons ranging from truncheons to sub-machine guns can strut the streets without redress or even query, harassing passers-by or beating up anyone they consider undesirable.


And sometimes even the police themselves are unable to identify or account for the activities of such groups. When, at the beginning of this month, a number of masked men surrounded a building in central Moscow and began firing shots and holding several employees of MOST-Bank at gunpoint, the Interior Ministry was at a loss to explain who they were. Indeed, when the police approached they were warned to stay away or be shot at.


As it turned out, this particular group was part of the presidential guard, acting on official orders, the object of which still remains far from clear. But that does not alter the fact that the police, who are after all responsible for maintaining order on the streets, were seemingly unaware of this at the time. To all intents and purposes, a private army was carrying out its own operation in Moscow, using firearms, and the police were unable to do anything about it.


So it is scarcely reassuring to hear that the police are now using the services of private security firms to help bolster their numbers when out on patrol. They insist that they are only using firms that have been stringently checked and that the men in question are only used as back-up. However much one sympathizes with the police's lack of funds, resources and manpower, this is not the answer. Private armies must be curbed, not encouraged, their operations subject to official law and order, not merged with it.