Vladimir Putin is ‘pathologically afraid’ for his life, claims high-ranking officer after defecting

A Russian security official has risked it all in a bombshell interview detailing the paranoia within Vladimir Putin’s tight-knit inner circle.

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a Security Council meeting via a video link at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 31, 2023. (Photo by Aleksey Babushkin / SPUTNIK / AFP)

A high-ranking Russian security official has risked it all in a bombshell interview detailing the paranoia within Vladimir Putin’s tight-knit inner circle.

Gleb Karakulov, who fled to Turkey from Kazakhstan while accompanying Putin during a visit to the former Soviet state in October, revealed that the Russian president had become paranoid and obsessed with his personal safety.

Putin has become one of the highest-profile targets in the world, with the International Criminal Court issuing a warrant for his arrest following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent war crimes.

Putin has become one of the highest-profile targets in the world, with the International Criminal Court issuing a warrant for his arrest following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent war crimes.

Speaking to the Dossier Centre, former Federal Protective Service officer Karakulov also claimed that the president was out of touch with reality, isolated from the world, and living in an information vacuum in his heavily guarded residences.

Putin was also said to be using identical offices in several residences across Russia as a security measure.

Karakulov confirmed that Putin had been working from a secure line in a bomb shelter in the Russian embassy in Astana, the Kazakh capital, during his visit to the country.

“He has shut himself off from the world,” Karakulov said in the interview. “His take on reality has become distorted.”

The Dossier Centre, a London-based investigative organisation funded by Russian detractor Mikhail Khodorkovsky, cross-checked Karakulov’s passport and security identification to confirm he was legitimate.

Karakulov said that he had only seen a fraction of the information available to FSO agents, but believes he has a duty to the world to speak out and expose Russian citizens to the truth.

The former official said security is watertight, with a wide range of precautionary tactics used while Putin is travelling.

The former official said security is watertight, with a wide range of precautionary tactics used while Putin is travelling.

“It is a kind of paranoia,” Karakulov continued. “(Putin) is pathologically afraid for his life. All food is inspected, and there is a special service running these tests – the Biological Safety Centre.

The Kremlin is still implementing strict measures to protect Putin from Covid-19, with Karakulov claiming anyone within arm’s reach of the 70-year-old had to observe a strict two-week quarantine before any event.

“We have to observe a strict quarantine for two weeks before any event, even those lasting 15 to 20 minutes,” he said. “Everyone is a little perplexed as to why this is still going on. I know that all of the president’s aides take PCR tests several times a day.”

Karakulov, who is understood to be the highest-ranking member of Russia’s special services to have defected since the start of the war in Ukraine, said he decided to leave Russia because he could no longer serve Putin.

He claimed Putin’s security detail had almost 100 per cent loyalty to him, referring to the President as “the boss”. However, Karakulov still urged his former colleagues to stop the “genocide” occurring in Ukraine, describing Putin as a “war criminal”.

He has been charged with desertion, putting him at risk of being targeted by Kremlin agents.

The former official also detailed how Russian media works hand-in-hand with the government to aid Putin’s security, often giving a false representation of his whereabouts.

Karakulov, an officer in Putin’s secretive elite personal security service, has spoken out, calling the Russian President a “war criminal”.

In one instance, state-run television showed Putin holding meetings at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow when he was still in Sochi. The ploy was a ruse to mislead foreign intelligence amid fears over assassination attempts.

“When he was in Sochi, security officers would deliberately pretend that he was leaving. They would bring a plane, and a motorcade would set off. While in actual fact, he would stay in Sochi,” he said.

“This is a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence, in the first place, and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life.”

Karakulov also briefly touched on rumours over Putin’s health.

Reports say Putin had been visited at least 35 times by a cancer specialist in four years, however Karakulov believes “he is in better health than many other people his age”.

Originally published as Vladimir Putin is ‘pathologically afraid’ for his life, claims high-ranking officer after defecting