A safety officer who labored straight for Vladimir Putin has defected from Russia, labelling the Kremlin despot a ‘war criminal’ for his invasion of Ukraine.
Gleb Karakulov, 35, is a captain in the Federal Guard Company, regarded as the FGS or FSO, who escaped Russia to the security by using Istanbul.
Now, he has unveiled in an job interview that Putin is so paranoid about his private stability, assassination tries and wellbeing and that he opts to remain ‘in his bunker’ alternatively than make standard trips across the state like he made use of to.
Karakulov added that the Russian despot is ‘mortally afraid’ of Covid and is isolating for the fourth calendar year, and that he under no circumstances employs a cellular phone out of panic of staying bugged by the West – in its place getting a unique communications box with him.
File independent media – which uncovered Karakulov’s testimony – promises he is the highest position defector so considerably from Putin’s immediate security circle.
Gleb Karakulov, a safety officer who labored right for Vladimir Putin, has defected from Russia, labelling the despot a ‘war criminal’
Putin, centre, visits the Tulazheldormash plant, a foremost Russian equipment-creating business, all through his journey to the Central Federal District, in Tula, Russia, Tuesday, April 4
Karakulov said Putin is ‘mortally afraid’ of Covid and is isolating for the fourth year. Pictured: Putin sits across a wide desk from French president Emmanuel Macron in Moscow, Feb. 2022
Vladimir Putin, pictured in April 2022, looks frail and bloated as he grips the facet of a desk for the duration of a meeting with his defence minister
Karakulov, an engineer who labored in the FGS since 2009, had obtain to Putin’s particular communications, Dossier has described.
The defense officer was reportedly liable for earlier leaks about Putin’s armoured teach, which he is comprehended to use on his progressively exceptional trips across Russia out of anxiety that his presidential plane could be shot down from the skies.
The leaks explained the prepare is camouflaged in gray and red to appear like a Russian ordinary passenger educate, building it visually virtually indistinguishable from the rest.
Putin’s paranoia is also demonstrated by the truth he under no circumstances takes advantage of a cell mobile phone. ‘I imply, in all my decades of service, I have not witnessed him after with a cell cell phone,’ Karakulov mentioned.
The Russian chief is so anxious about Western bugging that he requires a particular box with him on overseas outings to prevent his top secret talks from leaking.
‘With Putin… he would not use the net or a cellular cell phone. He only gets information from his closest circle, which means that he life in an details vacuum,’ Karakulov mentioned.
This usually means his understanding of activities is filtered via the solution services – and what he watches on state managed Russian Television set.
Western analysts have extensive suspected that Putin has not been receiving exact reports from his generals and others in his close-knit circle about the condition on the floor in Ukraine, out of fear of his wrath should really be be advised undesirable information.
This is demonstrated by his guards, who ‘call him the Boss, worship him in each way and only at any time chat of him in individuals terms’, in accordance to Karakulov.
Asked if Putin is normally in ‘lockdown’, Karakulov replied: ‘Yes, he is. We nonetheless have a self-isolating president. We have to notice a strict quarantine for two months in advance of any event, even individuals long lasting 15 to 20 minutes.
‘There is a pool of staff who have been cleared – who underwent this two-week quarantine. They are [considered] “cleanse” and can operate in the same area as Putin.’
Even so, requested about rumours of Putin being terminally unwell, he appeared unaware of credible information and facts that the dictator has experienced or nevertheless has cancer.
‘It was not anything my colleagues reviewed,’ he advised Dossier. ‘If he has any well being troubles, they must be owing to his age. Perfectly, he probably does have them. But it is absolutely nothing as well serious, I guess.’
He additional: ‘I can convey to you that I went on lots of small business journeys with him, and he went on several trips right before 2020. After that he stayed in his bunker and it’s possible designed just one particular, most, 3 business enterprise excursions a yr.
‘Given the reality that there had been many enterprise trips, only one or two were cancelled because of his well being.’
Putin would typically travel across Russia to shore-up his community impression as a person of the persons. Even so, considering that the Covid-19 pandemic and his invasion of Ukraine, these visits have declined in range. When he does journey, his excursions are greatly phase managed – with some suggesting that he even employs a human body double.
Rumours about the Russian president’s declining health, mental point out and unstable placement within the Kremlin have swirled considering the fact that prolonged before he purchased the illegal invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
In the yr since, the rumours have only intensified as the war appears to have taken its toll on the president, who has been found in recurrent films introduced by Russia clutching on to a desk to regular himself and awkwardly shuffling his toes.
Some reports have prompt he has most cancers or Parkinson’s disease.
In addition to the reviews on Puton’s wellbeing, Karakulov seemed unaware of Putin’s private everyday living with gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 39, and their younger children.
But he confirmed Putin has a £1billion cliff-top palace at Gelendzhik on the Black Sea, and the non-public yacht Scheherazade, as before discovered by Russia’s independent media.
Reviews of the despot’s extravagant wealth and of his mystery lover – believed to be concealed absent from the general public eye – are understood to have infuriated Putin, who kinds himself as a hero of the individuals of Russia, wherever the normal of residing is lower.
Karakulov stated Putin’s guards experienced to observe a stringent quarantine for two weeks ahead of any occasion, even those people long lasting 15 to 20 minutes. Pictured: Putin with a blanket about his lap at Russia’s 2022 victory day parade in Moscow
Karakulov confirmed Putin has a £1billion cliff-major palace, pictured, at Gelendzhik on the Black Sea, as uncovered by Russia’s impartial media.
The defector also verified that the Russian despot has a non-public yacht, Scheherazade, pictured
It is unclear wherever the defector is now, but he is assumed to be in the West.
He issued an charm to other officers to come ahead with proof about Putin as a ‘war criminal’.
‘I would like to tackle Russian officers, like the FGS officers,’ he claimed.
‘You have data that is not broadcast on tv. I have only viewed a very small part of it. Arrive forward, help me [with more evidence]. You will aid our citizens to master the real truth.
‘I am absolutely sure that you had concerns about the Commander-in-Chief’s steps right before, but the oath compelled you not to check with [them] and to efficiently execute his orders.
‘However, what is taking place now [with the war in Ukraine] is beyond the pale, it defies motive. You mustn’t follow criminal orders and serve this war felony, Vladimir Putin. And I consider him a war prison,’ he mentioned.
Karakulov claimed the invasion of Ukraine ‘is simply just beyond comprehension’.
‘Multiple rocket launchers are being utilized, residential structures and essential infrastructure are currently being strike.
‘How quite a few anonymous victims of this war are there, how several of them are kids? How numerous extra such victims are demanded before you prevent placing up with it?
‘What is going on now in Ukraine, all this destruction, this war of aggression, terrorism, and genocide of the Ukrainian folks – there is no other phrase for it – all this is a prison offence.
‘Our president has develop into a war criminal.’
Very last thirty day period, Putin was charged with war crimes by the Intercontinental Criminal Court docket (ICC). He is accused of the illegal deportation of youngsters from Ukraine to Russia.
Vast amounts of evidence displays that a number of other regulations outlined by the United Nations have also been broken by Russian forces.
Karakulov urged those people however inside of Putin’s protection assistance: ‘You have to quit next these legal orders. The FGS [FSO] officers are about the president all the time. You can just go in and point out that this is a crime.
‘It is up to you to halt this insanity quite swiftly. I would like you would do that since it would help you save several life.’
In a information to the Russian persons he explained: ‘Our president has shed contact with the entire world. He has been dwelling in an information and facts cocoon for the previous couple of many years, spending most of his time in his residences, which the media extremely fittingly phone bunkers.
Karakulov stated the invasion of Ukraine ‘is simply further than comprehension’ and labelled Putin a ‘war criminal’
‘He is pathologically concerned for his lifetime. He surrounds himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantines and an information and facts vacuum.
‘He only values his have daily life and the lives of his spouse and children and friends. The life of your relatives and close friends are of no interest to him.
‘By tearing gentlemen from their people and sending them to be slaughtered in sovereign Ukraine, he demonstrates he does not treatment in the the very least about what is happening to our country and Ukraine, about the fact that he brings problems, destruction, and death to the brotherly persons of Ukraine and to us.’
The ‘criminal war’ have to be ended as shortly as achievable, he said. ‘Life is the maximum value. We have forgotten it in this state. Folks are regarded cannon fodder.
‘This will keep on to be the situation as extended as we keep on being silent. This war has to finish and it is time to split the silence.’
Karakulov – who labored since 2009 in the FGS – escaped when he was sent on a company excursion to Kazakhstan to get ready for a Putin go to.
On this vacation in October 2022 – all through the war – Putin experienced his own bomb shelter, mentioned the defector. ‘It is a form of paranoia,’ he reported. Putin ‘is simply just afraid’.
Karakulov’s spouse and daughter escaped individually also by way of Kazakhstan and Istanbul.
‘They are not jogging soon after me with Novichok [nerve agent] yet, but they have already absent to see my relations, and I assume that the reason for this sluggish interest in me is that they assume: ‘There are a great deal much more of this kind of engineers, one particular much more, one particular fewer, who cares!’
He is underneath investigation in Russia for ‘desertion’.
The captain had put in unique communications back links for Putin in his planes, helicopters, yachts and armoured coach.
He progressively utilizes the train ‘because it is less conspicuous.
‘Planes present up on specific [databases]. Whilst a prepare, how lots of of these grey trains are there? Most importantly, they can’t be tracked on any data useful resource. It is really completed for stealth needs.’
Karakulov (pictured) urged those people still inside of Putin’s safety support to end subsequent ‘criminal’ orders from Putin
He claimed: ‘The President also has a telephone booth we take on each foreign vacation. It is a spot from which you can carry out talks with certain confidentiality.
‘The booth is, of training course, cumbersome. It is a dice about 2.5 meters significant.
‘Inside there is a workstation and a telephone, which just one can use to chat without having concern of these discussions staying overheard or go through by international intelligence.’
This box always travels abroad along with Putin’s nuclear suitcase which he can use to unleash atomic war.
