Putin is increasingly isolated, paranoid and afraid, defector says

On October 14, a Russian engineer named Gleb Karakulov boarded a flight from Kazakhstan to Turkey with his wife and daughter.

He turned off the phone to silence the crescendo of urgent and angry messages, saying goodbye to life in Russia and trying to calm his pounding heart.

But this is no ordinary Russian defector.

Karakulov is an officer in the secret elite private security service of Russian President Vladimir Putin – one of the few Russians to run and publicly disclose his rank, as well as knowledge of the intimate details of Putin’s life and classified information.

Karakulov, who is in charge of secure communications, said moral opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the fear of dying there prompted him to speak out, despite the risks.

“Our president has become a war criminal,” he said. “It’s time to end this war and stop being silent.”

Deepening paranoia

Karakulov’s account is largely in line with others who paint the Russian president as a once-charismatic but increasingly isolated leader, who does not use cellphones or the internet and demands access to Russian state television wherever he goes.

They shed new light on how Putin’s paranoia appears to have deepened since the invasion of Ukraine.

Putin now prefers to avoid planes and travel by special armored trains, and he ordered a bunker at the Russian Embassy in Kazakhstan equipped with secure lines of communication in October – the first time Karakulov had ever made such a request.

A defection like Karakulov’s “has a very high level of interest,” said an official with a background in the security of NATO countries, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive political issues.

“This will be seen as a serious blow to the president himself because he is obsessed with security, and his security is compromised,” he said.

The Kremlin did not respond to a request for comment.

A decade with Putin

As an engineer in the field unit of the presidential communications department of the Federal Protective Service, or FSO, Karakulov is responsible for setting up secure communications for the president and prime minister of Russia wherever they are.

Although not a Putin confidant, Karakulov spent many years in his ministry, overseeing him from 2009 until the end of 2022.

Karakulov, his wife and child have gone underground. Security restrictions prevent direct media contact with them.

The Dossier Center, a London-based investigative group funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, interviewed Karakulov several times and shared video and transcripts of those interviews with The Associated Press and several European broadcasters.

The Dossier Center confirmed the authenticity of Karakulov’s passport and FSO work identity card, and checked his biographical details against Russian government records, leaked personal data and social media posts, all of which were seen by the AP.

The AP also independently confirmed Karakulov’s identity with three sources in the US and Europe and corroborated his personal details, including his passport number, date and place of birth, two registered addresses, and the names and ages of family members.

But AP could not verify all the details of the defection.

No cell phone use

Karakulov moved as part of an advance team, often with enough specialized communications equipment to fill a large truck.

He says he has traveled more than 180 times with the Russian president, and contrary to widespread speculation, Putin, 70, looks better than most people his age.

Putin has only canceled some trips due to illness, he said. Unlike the prime minister, Putin does not need secure internet access when he travels, Karakulov said.

“I never saw him on a cell phone,” he said. “All the information he receives comes only from people close to him. That is, he lives in a kind of information vacuum.”

Karakulov’s work took him to a luxury hotel for the summit, a beach resort in Cuba, a yacht – and a ride on the armored train, which was prepared for the president of Russia.

Putin’s train looks like any other, painted gray with red stripes to blend in with the rest of the train carriages. Putin doesn’t like that planes can be tracked, preferring obscure train cars, Karakulov said.

“I know they’re just scared,” he said.

Putin began using the train regularly during his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Karakulov said.

Putin has set up similar offices in multiple locations — with matching details on desks and wall hangings — and official reports sometimes say he is elsewhere, according to Karakulov and earlier reports by Russian media outlets.

When Putin was in Sochi, security officials deliberately pretended he was away, bringing in planes and sending motorcades, while he stayed put, Karakulov said.

“I think it’s an attempt to confuse, first, intelligence, and second, to avoid assassination attempts,” he said.