Gleb Karakulov worked for 13 years in the FSO, the prestigious protection service of the Russian president. After defecting six months ago, he recounts the obsessive behavior of a head of state withdrawn into himself.
Vladimir Putin is a president”become a war criminal“. Gleb Karakulov no longer wants to condone the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And above all he no longer wants to be silent. The former officer of Vladimir Putin’s security service confided in December to a London-based investigative media , Dossier Center (in English), financed by the Russian opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky Ten hours of interviews in total published on Tuesday April 4, after verification and cross-checking.
>>> War in Ukraine: five questions about Russia’s presidency of the UN Security Council in April
On October 14 – in a hurry – he packs his life into three suitcases, he takes his wife and baby under his arm and, while he is in Kazakhstan with the Head of State, he flees in Turkey after having been, for 13 years, one of the members of the FSO, the prestigious protection service of Vladimir Putin. As an engineer, he was responsible for ensuring and securing the communications of the President and the Prime Minister, particularly during their travels.
He says he started to open his eyes during a professional trip to Crimea in 2014, just after the referendum. “People hadn’t voted 97% for joining Russia as we were told, it was more like 50-50″. The mobilization decreed on September 21, 2022 then made him realize that even if he resigned from his post, he became a reserve officer and could be sent to the front. “I could not agree to participate in this criminal war“, insists Gleb Karakulov.
Putin “cut himself off from the world”
Gleb Karakulov describes an isolated leader, very distant from new technologies. During all his years of service, he never saw Vladimir Putin using the internet, he never saw him with a cell phone. “I could see how distorted the news reaching him is“, says the ex-member of the FSO. He confirms that the Russian president is informed only by the mouth of his entourage and by the reports of the secret services.
In all his movements, says Gleb Karakulov, we follow him with an ultra-secure communication cabin, “a negotiation booth“. A cube about 2.5 meters high equipped with a workstation and a telephone where the head of state can speak without fear that the conversation will be overheard or read by foreign intelligence services. In October 2022, he even ordered a bunker on the same model from the Russian Embassy in Kazakhstan.
Wherever he goes on the move, hotel room or residence, Vladimir Putin also imperatively wants to have access to Russian television channels, including “Russia”. Gleb Karakulov believes that the Russian president has changed. “When he became Prime Minister, then President, he was energetic, active. Today he is very withdrawn, he says. He cut himself off from the world by all sorts of barriers, quarantine, lack of information. His perception of reality has become distorted“.
Fake motorcades
Gleb Karakulov also confirms a form of paranoia in the Russian president. Vladimir Putin avoids flying as much as possible, he prefers to travel in an armored train – which from the outside looks like a completely ordinary train, “gray with a red stripe“.”We started equipping it around 2014 or 2015“, says the former officer of the security service.
Fake processions of vehicles regularly leave his official residences to cover their tracks. When he was in Sochi, security officials would bring in a plane and leave a motorcade, to make it look like he was leaving, “when in fact there remained“, assures Gleb Karakulov. “The guys were talking about it really laughing.” An attempt to sow confusion, first in the intelligence services, then to avoid assassination attempts.
Vladimir Putin has also installed identical offices in several locations, in St. Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo, with matching details down to the desk and wall hangings. “Official reports sometimes say he’s in one place… when he’s actually in another.“, summarizes Gleb Karakulov.
A pool of “clean” employees
This paranoia is also expressed in the face of diseases and viruses. Since 2020, Vladimir Putin has participated in most events remotely. Like all his colleagues, Gleb Karakulov had to quarantine for two weeks before each official event, even if it was only supposed to last 15 or 20 minutes.
There is a pool of employees always “clean” he said. “COnly then can we work in the same room“, that the head of state. The closest collaborators of the president must undergo PCR tests several times a day.
However, the former officer denies rumors about Vladimir Putin’s state of health and assures that the Russian president is in perfect physical condition. “He is healthier than many other people his age. He has annual medical visits“, he declares. “In 13 years, only one or two official trips have been canceled because he was sick.”
“Talk to Putin, tell him it’s a crime”
At the end of his interview, Gleb Karakulov addresses the Russian officers of his former service: “You are in possession of information that is not broadcast on television. Speak, complete me. You will help citizens to know the truth“.
“What’s happening today is beyond anything imaginable“, he says again, referring in particular to the war in Ukraine. “You must stop following these criminal orders. The officers of the FSO are permanently around the president. You just have to go there and make him understand that it is a crime. And it’s up to you to put an end to this madness very quickly. I would really like you to do this, because you would save a lot of lives“.
Gleb Karakulov also sends a message to the Russians: “We are all kept in the dark, we are given only practical information, which is suitable for one person. For years we’ve just been brainwashed“.
The former officer says he does not fear for his life, but he is now on the list of people wanted by the Russian authorities, who consider him a “criminal“.