Concentration of power to Vladimir Putin takes on increasingly grotesque proportions. One example of this is the president’s armored luxury train, says the Russia expert.
– This combines concern for one’s position, various fears and even paranoia, researcher at the Institute for Foreign Policy Jussi Lassila.
Russia will hold a show election next Sunday. According to Lassila, securing a further season through formal elections is increasingly implausible, which is why Putin’s uncertainty about his own position is growing.
This article shows what the Russian monopoly’s most carefully protected vehicle looks like.
The pictures and information come from a Russian businessman living in exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky from the Dossier Center. It is a center for investigative journalism, which in 2023 received more than 25,000 documents related to Putin’s train in a data leak.
According to the Dossier Center, the documents are internal documents, contracts and notes of Zircon Services, a company that manufactures elite carriages.
From the modeling below, you can see what is known about Putin’s train based on the documents.
From the outside, the train looks like an ordinary Russian train.
In reality, there are luxurious salons, a state-of-the-art gym and a complex communication system hidden inside.
3-4 locomotives are needed to pull the train, as the armor covering the wagons makes them heavy.
According to the information in the dossier, at least 11 special carriages have been ordered for the train.
For example, several salons and a luxurious dining room, which can be seen in the picture below, have been built into the special carriages. There are at least two such cabin cars in Putin’s special train.
The organization’s watermark can be seen over the Dossier Center photos published in this story.
The train also includes a carriage with a gym suitable for Putin’s needs. There you can find, for example, a stomach plank and a training bench, as well as dumbbells of different sizes. A tatami mat can be seen in the foreground of the picture.
The third specialty of Putin’s train is the Turkish sauna or hamam. It is located next to the gym. The sauna department also has dressing and washing facilities.
The picture below shows three buttons on the wall of the Hamam section. According to Dossier Center, there is a button on the left side for fragrance treatment, the middle button is for foam and the third button is for showering.
According to researcher Jussi Lassila, the train can be seen as evidence of how the president’s extreme powers, combined with his Soviet background, have shaped Putin as he is today.
It is self-evident for the Kremlin that the president should have different vehicles, each more luxurious than the other, Lassila says.
– He is a self-righteous dictator. And acquires luxurious symbols as a sign of power, the researcher states.
Putin began using his armored train more after Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
The trips made hidden from the public increased with the war of aggression started in Ukraine in 2022. Putin has rarely been seen, for example, traveling by plane.
– It is natural that a dictator in a precarious position chooses a train as a means of transport and not an airplane, which is easier to track, says Lassila.
In the video below, you can see how Putin’s train can be distinguished from normal Russian trains.
On the side of the wagon is something related to Putin’s possessions Yuri Kovalchuk company logo.
There is a telecommunication device on the roof covered by a protective hood.
From the outside, it is difficult to see which of the train’s carriages are armored. Only the supporting structure visible at the bottom of the carriage can reveal it.
A special ward where the President of Russia can be revived
According to the dossier, a special welfare carriage was made for Putin’s train in 2018. A modern care wing has been built into one of the carriage’s compartments.
In addition to the treatment table shown in the picture below, the department also has resuscitation equipment, such as a lung ventilator and a defibrillator. The equipment also includes an infusion pump for administering medications and a patient monitoring monitor.
According to the information in the dossier, the train is also equipped with skin care products and, among other things, an ultrasound device that can be used to treat aging skin.
According to documents obtained by Dossier, all carriages on the train are built in such a way that listening devices cannot be used in them. The train also has its own power plant and Soviet-era communication system.
Russia’s most famous “ghost train”
The Russian administration has also built secret train stations for the needs of the state leadership, one of which is located in the center of Moscow.
In addition, the Kremlin has built private railway lines for the special train that take Putin to his luxury villas in Valdai and southern Russia.
By clicking on the pictures below, you can take a closer look at which railway stations Putin’s train moves through.
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Russian train enthusiasts have dubbed the Russian President’s train a ghost train because there is no information in its timetables and its movements are not reflected in the country’s railway systems.
Train enthusiasts on the forum last year, at least three pictures of a “ghost train” running on the railways of the St. Petersburg and Moscow regions were shared. There are dozens of pictures of the vehicle alleged to be Putin’s train on the forum.
According to the dossier, Putin’s train began to be prepared already during Putin’s first presidential term in the early 2000s. The price of the train has been estimated at a total of more than four billion rubles, or about 400 million euros.
In 2023, the Kremlin denied for CNN Dossier Center’s claims about Putin’s train. According to the Kremlin, Putin does not own or use the train cars described by the Dossier Center
However, according to the dossier, the Kremlin is already planning new carriages. According to it, a renewed multimedia trolley will be completed in 2025.