Elite Russian security officer says Putin is terrified of assassination and 'his perception of reality has been distorted'
Russian President Vladimir Putin isn't just paranoid about COVID-19, which is what has been seen in public meetings over the past few years, but he's also terrified of being assassinated, according to a former security service officer who fled Russia.
Radio Free Europe translated the recent interview with Gleb Karakulov, saying he "simply could not be in the service of this president."
“Our president has become a war criminal,” he said. “It’s time to end this war and stop being silent.”
It isn't a recent defection, Karakulov fled in October 2022, and has been in hiding. Karakulov was a captain in the Federal Protection Service before defecting to the west.
In the new interview, Karakulov said that he worked as an engineer in a division that gave secret communications to Putin. The division was also tasked with crafting the secure communications necessary for when Putin traveled to different locations. He was never a close Putin confidant, but spent years, beginning in 2009, watching as the leader escalated his attacks on Ukraine.
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"Karakulov said his main reason for leaving was the the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022. He said that, after the invasion, he 'simply could not be in the service of this president,'" the report said.
“The president also has a talking booth that we take on every trip abroad. This is a place from which you can conduct negotiations with guaranteed secrecy. The booth, of course, is bulky. It’s such a cube about 2.5 m high. through which you can speak without fear that the conversation can be heard or read by foreign intelligence,” said Karakulov.
His descriptions of Putin are consistent with what experts have said. Namely that Putin is extremely paranoid about COVID-19, and creates a kind of sterile circle around him at all times.
“Now he is very closed. He has protected himself from the whole world with all sorts of barriers, the same quarantine, the lack of information. His perception of reality has been distorted,” Karakulov said.
Anyone who works in the same room as Putin must have a two-week quarantine. There were questions about Putin possibly being ill, but Karakulov said that he wasn't aware of anything involving the deterioration of Putin's health.
Then there's the matter of the isolation and paranoia. He didn't clarify if the paranoia was causing the isolation, but he claimed that the Russian leader from 2009 to now is like a completely different person.
“Now he is very closed off. He has protected himself from the whole world with all sorts of barriers, the same quarantine, lack of information. His perception of reality has been distorted,” Karakulov explained.
"All the information he receives is only from people who are directly close. He lives in a kind of information vacuum," said Karakulov.
He noted that Putin doesn't use a cell phone nor does he look at the internet.
The paranoia extends beyond the health aspect, however. Putin refuses to travel by plane. In the past that hasn't been an issue for the younger Putin, but now he refuses to travel in anything other than an armored train.
"Putin ordered the construction of a bunker at the Russian Embassy in Kazakhstan outfitted with a secure communications line in October," the report also stated.
Putin was once a charismatic leader, taking photos of himself shirtless riding horses and other poses. Now he doesn't watch any other television other than Russian state news, controlled by his own government.
A 2022 U.S. intelligence report after the war began detailed an atmosphere in which Putin surrounded himself with "yes men," Fortune reported at the time. At first, Putin was being lied to about the poor performance in Ukraine.
"The findings, recently declassified, indicate that Putin is aware of the situation on information coming to him and there now is persistent tension between him and senior Russian military officials," the report explained.
The U.S. thinks that he's not only being lied to about the military, but also “how the Russian economy is being crippled by sanctions because, again, his senior advisers are too afraid to tell him the truth,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said.
Publicly, most of Karakulov's former colleagues are supportive of Putin, but behind the scenes he hopes that they think deeper about any criminal orders they're given.
"FSO officers are constantly around the president. You can just come in and make it clear that this is a crime. And in your hands is the ability to stop this madness very quickly," Karakulov explained.
One NATO source told the AP on condition of anonymity that a defection of someone like Karakulov “has a very great level of interest. That would be seen as a very serious blow to the president himself because he is extremely keen on his security, and his security is compromised."
See a clip of the interview with translations below or at the link here.
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