How paranoid Vladimir Putin has identical offices to try to foil assassins: Russian President claims to be in one mansion when he is actually thousands of miles away – and sends out fake motorcades to fool foreign spies
- Putin designed identical offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo
- Official reports sometimes say Putin is in one place when he’s actually in another
Vladimir Putin has set up identical offices in multiple locations across Russia to confuse potential assassins in yet another sign the despot is paranoid about his safety, a Russian intelligence officer who fled the country over the Ukraine war said.
Putin has become so obsessed with his own safety that he designed the offices in his luxury mansions in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo to look exactly the same, Gleb Karakulov, an officer in the Russian president’s secretive elite personal security service, said.
The offices are identical, with matching details down to the desk and wall hangings, and official reports sometimes say he’s in one place when he’s actually in another.
When Putin was in Sochi, security officials would deliberately pretend he was leaving, bringing in a plane and sending off a motorcade, when he was in fact staying in the city, Karakulov revealed.
‘This is, firstly, a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life,’ Karakulov told the Dossier Center, a Russian investigative journalism project.
Putin speaking to Andrey Kostin in his Novo-Ogaryovo office in 2017
This confirmed previous media reports by Russian outlet Proekt Media showing how Putin’s office in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi (pictured in 2020) and his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow were identical
Karakulov confirmed Putin has a £1billion cliff-top palace, pictured, at Gelendzhik, near Sochi, on the Black Sea, as revealed by Russia’s independent media
Putin’s alleged palace in Valdai in Novo-Ogaryovo, Russia, where the leader has an identical office to the ones in Sochi and St Petersburg
Putin has become so obsessed with his own safety that he designed the offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo to look exactly the same, Gleb Karakulov (pictured), an officer in the Russian president’s secretive elite personal security service, said
This confirmed previous media reports by Russian outlet Proekt Media showing how Putin’s office in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi and his residence in Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow were identical. The Kremlin had released photos of his meeting claiming he was in Novo-Ogaryovo when in fact he was in Sochi.
READ MORE: Paranoid Vladimir Putin ‘now travels in specially-made armoured trains over fears his Flying Kremlin presidential plane will be shot out of sky’
Karakulov depicted Putin as an increasingly isolated leader who lives in an ‘information vacuum’ in his heavily guarded residences, which he described as ‘bunkers’.
The Russian president refuses to use a mobile phone out of fear of being bugged by the West and prefers to travel on a special armoured train because he is paranoid a plane can be tracked, Karakulov said. He added that Putin is ‘mortally afraid’ of Covid and is isolating for the fourth year.
‘He’s simply afraid,’ Karakulov said. ‘He has shut himself off from the world. His take on reality has become distorted.’
Karakulov, who was responsible for secure communications and is thought to be the highest-ranking member of Russia’s special services to have defected since the start of the war, said moral opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and his fear of dying there drove him to speak out, despite the risks to himself and his family.
‘Our president has become a war criminal,’ he said. ‘It’s time to end this war and stop being silent.’
He said Putin’s paranoia has deepened since he invaded Ukraine and detailed how the Russian despot ordered a bunker to be set up at the Russian Embassy in Kazakhstan and secured with a secure communications line in October last year.
‘It is a kind of paranoia,’ Karakulov said. ‘He is pathologically afraid for his life.’
As an engineer in a field unit of the presidential communications department of the Federal Protective Service, or FSO, Karakulov was responsible for setting up secure communications for the Russian president and prime minister wherever they went.
Karakulov moved as part of an advance team, often with enough specialised communications equipment to fill a KAMAZ truck.
He said he has taken more than 180 trips with the Russian president, and contrary to widespread speculation, Putin appears to be in better shape than most people his age. Putin has only cancelled a few trips due to illness, he said.
Unlike the prime minister, Putin does not require secure internet access on his trips, Karakulov said.
‘I have never seen him with a mobile phone,’ he said. ‘All the information he receives is only from people close to him. That is, he lives in a kind of information vacuum.’
The Russian leader is so concerned about Western bugging that he takes a special box with him on foreign trips to prevent his secret talks from leaking.
‘With Putin… he doesn’t use the internet or a mobile phone. He only receives information from his closest circle, which means that he lives in an information vacuum,’ Karakulov said.
This means his knowledge of events is filtered via the secret services – and what he watches on state controlled Russian TV.
Putin has become so obsessed with his own safety that he designed the offices in his luxury mansions in St Petersburg, Sochi (pictured) and Novo-Ogaryovo
The palace is part of a huge complex located on the Black Sea coast near Gelendzhik, by Sochi, Russia
Pictured: A large room with grand ceilings inside Putin’s palace is shown in pictures released by Navalny’s team
Other images show Putin’s alleged bedroom, a second bedroom and his office, and as well as a swimming pool, they claim
The identical offices were also found in Valdai in Novo-Ogaryovo, the Russian defector said
This is said to be the dining room at the mansion owned by Vladimir Putin in Novo-Ogaryovo
New pictures are said to show the inside of the Putin hideaway at Valdai for the first time
This photo provided by the Dossier Center shows the Russian Federal Protective Service (FSO) identification card of Gleb Karakulov, in October 2022 in Turkey
Karakulov said Putin is ‘mortally afraid’ of Covid and is isolating for the fourth year. Pictured: Putin sits across a vast table from French president Emmanuel Macron in Moscow, Feb. 2022
Western analysts have long suspected that Putin has not been receiving accurate reports from his generals and others in his close-knit circle about the situation on the ground in Ukraine, out of fear of his wrath should be be told bad news.
READ MORE: The total collapse and break-up of Putin’s Russia has already begun and the West needs to be ready to deal with the aftermath, top Zelensky official predicts
This is demonstrated by his guards, who ‘call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms’, according to Karakulov.
Asked if Putin is always in ‘lockdown’, Karakulov replied: ‘Yes, he is. We still have a self-isolating president. We have to observe a strict quarantine for two weeks before any event, even those lasting 15 to 20 minutes.
‘There is a pool of employees who have been cleared – who underwent this two-week quarantine. They are [considered] “clean” and can work in the same room as Putin.’
However, asked about rumours of Putin being terminally ill, he appeared unaware of credible information that the dictator has had or still has cancer.
‘It was not something my colleagues discussed,’ he told Dossier. ‘If he has any health issues, they must be due to his age. Well, he probably does have them. But it is nothing too serious, I guess.’
He added: ‘I can tell you that I went on many business trips with him, and he went on many trips before 2020. After that he stayed in his bunker and maybe made just one, maximum, three business trips a year.
‘Given the fact that there had been many business trips, only one or two were cancelled because of his health.’
Putin would often travel across Russia to shore-up his public image as a man of the people. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic and his invasion of Ukraine, these trips have declined in number. When he does travel, his trips are heavily stage managed – with some suggesting that he even employs a body double.
Rumours about the Russian president’s declining health, mental state and unstable position within the Kremlin have swirled since long before he ordered the illegal invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
In the year since, the rumours have only intensified as the war appears to have taken its toll on the president, who has been seen in frequent videos released by Russia clutching on to a desk to steady himself and awkwardly shuffling his feet.
Some reports have suggested he has cancer or Parkinson’s disease.
In addition to the reports on Puton’s health, Karakulov seemed unaware of Putin’s private life with gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 39, and their young children.
But he confirmed Putin has a £1billion cliff-top palace at Gelendzhik on the Black Sea, and the private yacht Scheherazade, as earlier revealed by Russia’s independent media.
Reports of the despot’s extravagant wealth and of his secret lover – believed to be hidden away from the public eye – are understood to have infuriated Putin, who styles himself as a hero of the people of Russia, where the standard of living is low.
Karakulov said Putin’s guards had to observe a strict quarantine for two weeks before any event, even those lasting 15 to 20 minutes. Pictured: Putin with a blanket over his lap at Russia’s 2022 victory day parade in Moscow
Karakulov said his work brought him to luxury hotels for summits, beach resorts in Cuba, yachts – and aboard a special armored train outfitted for the Russian president.
Putin’s train looks like any other, painted gray with a red stripe to blend in with other railway carriages in Russia. Putin didn’t like the fact that airplanes can be tracked, preferring the stealth of a nondescript train car, Karakulov said.
Putin began to use the train regularly in the run-up to the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Karakulov said.
Even last year, Putin continued to insist on strict anti-COVID-19 measures, and FSO employees took shifts in two-week quarantine so there would always be a pool of people cleared to travel with Putin on the train, he said.
While he was not a confidant of Putin’s, Karakulov spent years in his service, observing him from unusually close quarters from 2009 through late 2022.
Karakulov, his wife and his child have gone underground since he defected.
The Dossier Center confirmed the authenticity of Karakulov’s passport and FSO work identity card, and cross-checked details of his biography against Russian government records, leaked personal data and social media postings.
The FSO is one of the most secretive branches of Russia’s security services.
‘Even when they quit, they never talk, but they know a lot of details of the private life of the president and the prime minister,’ said Katya Hakim, a senior researcher at the Dossier Center.
Karakulov’s defection was a surprising turn for a family steeped in patriotic military tradition. Karakulov’s father is a former military man, and his brother is a local government official.
Karakulov said he couldn’t tell his parents about his disillusionment, because their minds had been molded by years of watching Russian state television. So he never told them he was leaving.
But he denies that he is unpatriotic and urged others to break their silence to stop the war.
‘Patriotism is when you love your country,’ he said. ‘In this case, our homeland needs to be saved because something crazy and terrible is happening.’
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