NEW DELHI: A secret train network, identifical offices in several cities and an austere personal quarantine – these are just a few paranoid measures Russian President Vladimir Putin is believed to have implemented to thwart any potential threat to his life.
According to a report in Guardian, a senior Russian security officer who defected from the country in 2022 has confirmed details of the paranoid lifestyle of Putin, giving a rare insight into how the President ensures his safety.
Gleb Karakulov, who served as a captain in the Federal Protection Service (FSO), a powerful body tasked with protecting Russia’s highest-ranking officials, said the measures were designed to mask the whereabouts of Putin, whom he described as “pathologically afraid for his life”.
According to Karakulov, Putin uses a covert train for “stealth purposes” so that it cannot be tracked on any information resource.
However, the Guardian reviewed an interview with Karakulov by the Dossier Centre, a political information outfit, and confirmed the credentials of the senior Russian communications engineer.
It said that he travelled with Putin extensively and helped transmit some of his most secret messages.
According to the report, Karakulov is most likely the highest-ranking intelligence official to defect since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
He said that Putin now spends most of his time in his residences and is “pathologically afraid for his life”.
“He surrounds himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantines and an information vacuum. He only values his own life and the lives of his family and friends,” he revealed.
A state within a state
Describing what seems to be a virtual state within a state, Karakulov said that it has “firefighters, food testers and other engineers who travel with Putin on his trips abroad”.
“They call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms,” he said.
“Karakulov also described setting up secret communications for Putin on planes, helicopters, lavish yachts and even in a bomb shelter at the Russian embassy in Kazakhstan during an October 2022 visit when Karakulov ultimately fled to Turkey and from there to an undisclosed country in the west,” the report said.
Interestingly, he said that Putin does not use a mobile phone or the internet and relies on information he gets from his closest circle.
He said that Putin is “still in quarantine” and requires all staff working in the same room as him to also undergo a two-week quarantine.
He added that the Russian President uses identical offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo.
“The secret services used fake motorcades and decoy planes to pretend he was leaving. This is a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence, in the first place, and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life,” he said.
He added that Putin’s lifestyle changed significantly after the Covid outbreak in 2020.
According to a report in Guardian, a senior Russian security officer who defected from the country in 2022 has confirmed details of the paranoid lifestyle of Putin, giving a rare insight into how the President ensures his safety.
Gleb Karakulov, who served as a captain in the Federal Protection Service (FSO), a powerful body tasked with protecting Russia’s highest-ranking officials, said the measures were designed to mask the whereabouts of Putin, whom he described as “pathologically afraid for his life”.
According to Karakulov, Putin uses a covert train for “stealth purposes” so that it cannot be tracked on any information resource.
However, the Guardian reviewed an interview with Karakulov by the Dossier Centre, a political information outfit, and confirmed the credentials of the senior Russian communications engineer.
It said that he travelled with Putin extensively and helped transmit some of his most secret messages.
According to the report, Karakulov is most likely the highest-ranking intelligence official to defect since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
He said that Putin now spends most of his time in his residences and is “pathologically afraid for his life”.
“He surrounds himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantines and an information vacuum. He only values his own life and the lives of his family and friends,” he revealed.
A state within a state
Describing what seems to be a virtual state within a state, Karakulov said that it has “firefighters, food testers and other engineers who travel with Putin on his trips abroad”.
“They call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms,” he said.
“Karakulov also described setting up secret communications for Putin on planes, helicopters, lavish yachts and even in a bomb shelter at the Russian embassy in Kazakhstan during an October 2022 visit when Karakulov ultimately fled to Turkey and from there to an undisclosed country in the west,” the report said.
Interestingly, he said that Putin does not use a mobile phone or the internet and relies on information he gets from his closest circle.
He said that Putin is “still in quarantine” and requires all staff working in the same room as him to also undergo a two-week quarantine.
He added that the Russian President uses identical offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo.
“The secret services used fake motorcades and decoy planes to pretend he was leaving. This is a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence, in the first place, and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life,” he said.
He added that Putin’s lifestyle changed significantly after the Covid outbreak in 2020.