According to a media outlet, a senior Russian security official who defected last year provided “rare insight into the paranoid lifestyle” of President Vladimir Putin by describing a “secret train network, identical offices in different cities, a strict personal quarantine, and escalating security protocols”.
The measures were “designed to mask the whereabouts of the Russian President, whom he described as “pathologically afraid for his life,” according to Gleb Karakulov, a former captain in the Federal Protection Service (FSO), a strong organisation tasked with protecting Russia’s highest-ranking officials, The Guardian reported.
Since the train “cannot be monitored on any information resource,” the 36-year-old claimed that it was utilised. According to the media source, it is carried out covertly.
The train and a hidden railway network with parallel lines and stops near Putin’s homes in the Valdai national park in Novo-Ogaryovo and near his Bocharov Ruchei home in the Black Sea resort of Sochi were previously mentioned by the Russian investigative site Proekt.
The “field team” of the Presidential Communications Directorate, which encrypts the communications of senior Russian officials, included Karakulov, who estimated that he had taken more than 180 excursions with senior officials. Since the start of Russia’s conflict in Ukraine, he looks to be the highest-ranking intelligence officer to desert, according to the article.
Karakulov provided a unique first-hand glimpse into the levels of paranoia and sheltered lifestyle of the Russian president by describing a virtual state inside a state that comprises firemen, food testers, and other engineers who go with Putin on his excursions overseas.
When Karakulov eventually escaped to Turkey and from there to an unnamed location in the west, he reportedly spoke of “setting up covert communications for Putin on aircraft, helicopters, opulent boats, and even in a bomb bunker at the Russian embassy in Kazakhstan during an October 2022 visit.”
Putin “heavily depends for information on reports given by his security agencies,” says Karakulov.
“Putin didn’t use a smartphone or the internet, and he didn’t even bring an internet expert with him when he travelled abroad. He was reported by The Guardian as stating, “He only gets information from his closest group, which indicates that he lives in an information vacuum.
