Varangian Services Ltd.  is an executive protection/bodyguard (BG), security consulting and tactical training agency. Based in the United States, its principals have spent decades developing a network of elite agents in Canada, Mexico, Russia, Israel, the UK, India and elsewhere.  Varangian’s founders and primary agents are comprised of: career law enforcement commanders, police chiefs and SWAT operators; military, including special operations from various countries; government agents; private military contractors; and career bodyguards.  In aggregate, Varangian staff have provided executive protection, security consulting and intelligence-gathering services in more than 50 countries, including private contract work in recent years in such high-threat and terror-target areas as Afghanistan, Sudan, Russia/Chechnya, Israel, Kosovo, Serbia, Iraq, Syria, eastern Ukraine, India, northern Georgia (during the 2008 Russian invasion), Mexico and southern Thailand. 

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Varangian’s EP professionals have received training from such notable programs as the original British Professional Bodyguard Association’s (PBA) month-long program in northern England, Russian FSB (current iteration of the old KGB) 9th Directorate and Spetsnaz (special forces) high-threat VIP bodyguard training, US Marshal’s Service and ESI in Colorado.  Varangian offers agents with specialized skills, such as long-range snipers, tactical driving, wilderness survival, horsemanship, SCUBA divers, instructors and dive masters, tactical combat casualty care instructors, CPR, AED, medic/first aid and dive medic instructors and practitioners.  All are hand-to-hand combat and close-quarters combat firearms experts. Some agents are trained in hostage and barricade negotiations, and have undergone FBI negotiations courses, to include K&R and negotiations with hostage-takers suffering from mental illness.

 

Varangian personnel have been responsible for BG protection for numerous high-value clients.  These have included Russian military commanders in the U.S. for counter-terrorism conferences; a member of the Israeli state department and a Mossad director; an official from the Afghan Embassy in Washington, D.C. along with the then-minister in charge of counter-terrorism under the Karzai administration from Kabul; state government officials traveling overseas; a British business women in the UK; and a popular rock singer from Europe performing concerts in the US. U.S. citizens from all walks of life have benefited from their services, including celebrities, women under threat from domestic violence, and business executives.  Varangian agents have provided security training to officials of NGOs while in Sudan and the Chechen War Theater; and were responsible for the safety of the wife of a UN official in Kosovo in proximity to the Serbian border.  In May 2014 they served as election observers in Kiev during the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine and in the immediate aftermath of, both, the months-long massacre at the Maidan and the takeover of Crimea by Russia. They have worked the terror regions of southern Thailand, and were observers of the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008. Varangian members assisted in developing a new security operation for television political commentator Glenn Beck and developed a complete EP program for a candidate for the presidency of an African nation.

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Varangian agents have served as chief instructors to Afghanistan government military and police tactical units, and their counterparts in Mexico, provided training to Kuwaiti Special Forces, as well as the primary EP agent for a major US defense contractor CEO. They have taught week-long EP courses for SWAT teams and SWAT operators from the Philadelphia area. At that time the sponsoring police department had been working closely with the Secret Service, providing protection for then-Vice President Joe Biden, who lived in nearby Wilmington, Delaware.  In 2013, this department was to be the primary local protection force for visiting royalty and political dignitaries from Sweden and Finland, as well as Salman Rushdie, author of the book Satanic Verses, which caused him to live under threat of an execution order by the Ayatollah Khomeini for decades.  Our training was provided immediately prior to these visits, and afterward the assigned Secret Service agents reported that the officers had been the best trained and most professional group they had ever worked with.

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In summer 2015, the course was run again for additional officers of the same department to serve as the primary agency providing security for Pope Francis during his visit to Philadelphia, with all reports being that the officers performed impressively. These officers continue to apply their training in their professional work.

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Languages 

Within the Varangian agent network are fluent speakers in Russian, Spanish, Hindi, Albanian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Hebrew and English.

Skills and Training

Within in the bodyguard/EP discipline, Varangian agents are trained in a number of critical skills.  Varangian also offers this training to others, including specialized work in:

1. Surveillance, Counter-Surveillance and Protective Surveillance;

2. Immediate Action Drills/Skills;

3. Close Quarters Unarmed Combat – to include Hand-to-Hand Combat; Weapons Disarming; Improvised Weapons; Multiple Attacker Defense; Groundfighting;

4. Close Quarters Firearms – handgun, handgun carry/placement and deployment, weapon retention, assault rifle, transition and reverse transition skills;

5. Moving Through A Crowd;

6. Advance Work;

7. Intelligence File Development;

8. Operations Planning;

9. Law with regard to use of force and use of deadly force, concealed carry of a firearm, statutory regulations on knives and other weapons;

10. Psychology of an Assailant/Assassin;

11. Barricade/Hostage Negotiations, Negotiations with the Mentally Ill; K&R Negotiations;

12. CPR/AED/First Aid for Adults, Children, Infants; Advanced Bleeding Control;

13. Tactical Combat Casualty Care/TCCC (CUF – Care Under Fire).

 

States and Countries Varangian is represented in:

US States:

California (Los Angeles)

Colorado (Denver Metropolitan area, Front Range and Colorado Springs)

Delaware

Florida

Georgia (Atlanta)

Kentucky

Maryland

New York, Connecticut and New Hampshire

Oregon (Portland)

Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Central-South Pennsylvania)

Tennessee

Texas (San Antonio)

Virginia

Utah

Washington state (Spokane)

West Virginia

Washington, DC

Wyoming (Cheyenne)

 

Other Countries:

Australia (Melbourne)

Canada (Vancouver, British Columbia)

India (New Delhi)

Israel (Tel Aviv and Jerusalem)

Russia (Moscow)

United Kingdom (London)

 

Varangian Agents and Contractors

Varangian’s key agents, principals and contractors around the world come from the following professional backgrounds and skillsets:

- US police commanders and chiefs

- American police SWAT operators, team leaders and instructors

- US Army Special Forces (Green Berets) and Special Operations Forces/JSOC

- US Navy SEALs, including SEAL Team 6

- US government agencies

- Snipers

- Private military contractors

- Career bodyguards and security officers

- British Army

- Special Forces commanders of India

- Russian Spetsnaz (Special Forces)

- Martial artists and instructors, competitors, and military hand-to-hand combat instructors

- MMA fighters

- National and international level competition shooters

- Skydivers and military Airborne

- Scuba divers and instructors

- Medics, tactical medics and instructors

- Experienced horsemen, trainers, competitors and rodeo riders

- Race car driving

- Motorcyclists

- Wilderness survival

- Mountain climbing and rappeling