On October 14, 2022, Russian engineer Gleb Karakulov boarded a flight from Kazakhstan to Turkey with his wife and daughter. He turned off his phone and said goodbye to his life in Russia. This was no ordinary defector. Karakulov was an officer in President Vladimir Putin’s secret personal security service.
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“He’s a war criminal,” says an experienced member of Putin’s security | Video: Associated Press
Karakulov, who was responsible for the Russian president’s secure communications with the outside world, said that moral disapproval of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the fear that he would die there drove him to speak out despite the risk to himself and his family. He added that he hoped it would inspire other Russians to speak out as well.
“I consider this man (Putin) a war criminal. Although I did not specifically participate in these military actions, I do not consider it possible for me to carry out his criminal orders or even be in his service. It would be too much of a problem for my conscience. I am not up to it ready,” says Karakulov in an interview at the end of last year for the non-governmental organization The Dossier Center (DC).
The Dossier Center, which was founded by the former richest Russian oligarch and critic of the Kremlin, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, published the interview at the moment when it confirmed that Karakulov was no longer living in Turkey and was hiding in a safe place with his family.
Godforsaken
“Our president is cut off from the world, lives in an information vacuum. In recent years, he spends most of his time in his residences, which the media very eloquently call bunkers. He is pathologically afraid for his life. He has surrounded himself with an impenetrable barrier in the form of a quarantine, he refuses any information from the Internet ,” Karakulov described Putin’s life.
Karakulov is a former captain of Russia’s Federal Protective Service (FSO) and primarily provided encrypted presidential communications. Although he was not Putin’s confidant, he accompanied the Russian president on more than 180 trips in the last 13 years. The AP agency verified his identity with three anonymous sources in the US and Europe and independently confirmed his personal information and the fact that he is listed in the Russian Ministry of the Interior as a wanted person who deserted during the military mobilization.
A former member of the secret personal security guard offered new details about how Putin’s paranoia deepened after his decision to invade Ukraine in February 2022. Kazakhstan equipped with a secure communication line. This was the first time I had to arrange such a request,” described Karakulov.
However, Karakulov dismissed rumors that 70-year-old Putin is suffering from an unspecified illness. According to him, Putin, on the other hand, is looking forward to good health for his age. “He is only concerned about the covid-19 infection. All employees must isolate themselves for two weeks before meeting Putin,” said Karakulov.
He used to be charismatic
According to the AP, his hours-long testimony is consistent with the accounts of other people close to Putin. They portray him as a once-charismatic but increasingly isolated leader who does not use a mobile phone or the Internet and insists on constant access to Russian state television.
Karakulov also spoke out about earlier claims about Putin’s wealth. A former colleague allegedly confirmed to him that Putin has an opulent palace by the Black Sea, which was reported by the team of imprisoned Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. He also confirmed that Putin has identical offices in several residences. The Dossier Center said it witnessed Putin speaking from an office in Sochi, while Russian television said he was supposed to be holding meetings at a residence outside Moscow.
“I consider it my goal that my child does not know the horrors of war. So that the state, which intervenes in every possible way in the education of children, does not touch him. So that my daughter can grow up in a peaceful environment and be able to grow as a person and realize herself,” she says about her motivation escape during Putin’s trip to Kazakhstan an officer of his secret personal security service.
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