He fled Russia because he could no longer bear the actions of the man he described as ” war criminal “. A former employee of the Federal Protection Service, one of the most secret branches of the Russian services, gives details about Vladimir Putin. Gleb Karakoulov accompanied the President on nearly 200 trips. A refugee abroad since the end of 2022, he told his story to the Dossier Center, a London-based investigative group funded by opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
A lonely man, who doesn’t use a cell phone or the internet, and who insists on having access to Russian state television wherever he goes: that’s how Gleb Karakoulov describes the Russian president. According to the former member of the Federal Protective Service, Vladimir Putin’s paranoia has even worsened since its decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022:
” Our president is cut off from the world. He has been living in an informational cocoon for a few years. He spends most of his time in his residences, which the media very eloquently call bunkers. He fears for his life in a pathological way. »
To get around, Vladimir Putin now prefers to take a special armored train which, outwardly, is in no way different from other trains. Last month, the investigative media Proekt told that to access his properties, the Russian president had built private stations.
Everything is done to maintain the vagueness of the exact places where he is, according to Gleb Karakoulov: “ Its offices are the same in St. Petersburg, Sochi or Novo Ogariovo. Everything there is absolutely the same. There were times when I knew he was in Sochi, but at the same time the television showed him in a meeting at his Moscow residence in Novo-Ogariovo. »
Contrary to rumors about an incurable illness from which he is suffering, Vladimir Putin seems to be, according to Gleb Karakoulov, in better shape than most people his age. The master of the Kremlin celebrated his 70th birthday in October 2022.