Capitalise the nations army. Having the military as a branch of government is socialism. People like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk would be far better generals than Patton or MacArthur ever were.

Step 2- hide in a bunker

Snerk. What a freaking time to be alive. The dirty chef became oligarch, became involved in subverting other elections, starts pmc, then boom.

I can’t believe the Chechens are going to Rostov, to what fight for Putin. Just crazy.

Oh, this is dank.

Also, you can prevent your citizens from having free healthcare or education by paying fat more for these mercenaries, inflating your already bloated military spending budget while also allowing you to commit war crimes overseas and get away with it! It’s really a win-win situation.

Alternately, you could just kidnap random civilians and force them to fight in the army. What could possibly go wrong?