“He protected himself from the whole world. He distorted the perception of reality "

The Dossier Center published an interview with the FSO officer who escaped to Istanbul - about Putin, war and his service

The Dossier Center, founded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, published an interview with Gleb Karakulov , whom the reporters call the captain of the Federal Security Service (FSO). Karakulov worked as an engineer in the Presidential Communications Department, his duties included providing Vladimir Putin with a secret connection. The FSO officer said that he, together with his wife and daughter, fled to Istanbul in early October 2022 during a business trip to Astana, where the President of the Russian Federation participated in several events. The “dossier” calls Karakulov the highest -ranking employee of the special services who escaped from Russia and condemned the war after the start of Russia's full -scale invasion of Ukraine. Medusa retells his interview.

Gleb Karakulov said that he worked in the FSO since 2009. He was engaged in ensuring the encrypted communications of the president and the Prime Minister. The officer served in an exit unit, which provides the connection of the first persons of the state on business trips in Russia and the world. A trip to Astana, during which he escaped, was for him the 183rd or 184th business trip.

According to Karakulov, in less than two years he had to retire. He wanted to close the mortgage and not to renew the contract. He claims that after the start of the full -scale invasion of Russia to Ukraine, he could not “make a deal with conscience”:

I just could not be in the service of this president. I consider this person a war criminal. Although I did not participate precisely in military operations, but I do not consider it possible to execute his criminal orders or just to be in his service.

After the start of the war, Karakulov, according to him, spent three months on sick leave, and then waited for the registration of a new passport. All this time, according to him, he thought how to leave the FSO. Then Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization - in such circumstances, as Karakulov claims, he could no longer quit, otherwise he would have gone "a direct flight immediately after dismissal to the front."

The FSO officer claims that he decided to leave when he learned about a business trip to Astana, where Vladimir Putin had several events were planned. Together with his colleagues, he came to the capital of Kazakhstan on October 6. Two days later, his wife and daughter flew there, Karakulov claims. According to him, they crossed once when the wife came to the hotel for his suitcase. He also said that on this business trip, the FSO officers were given official passports in their hands.

According to the story of Karakulov, on the afternoon of October 14, on the last day of a business trip to Astana, at three in the afternoon he and his wife and child went to the airport. He claims that shortly before, he told his colleagues that he would not go shopping with them, since his stomach fell ill and he will remain in the room. According to Karakulov, he feared that at the airport questions might have arisen because of his official passport, which differs from a universal, but in the end everything went without problems. 10-15 minutes before departure, he turned off the phone and turned it on only after landing in Istanbul:

It was a flurry of messages. There were five messages somewhere, probably. There were many messages at the moment I turned off the phone. And there was a correspondence like: “Where is he there? Maybe he went there? Maybe he is already here? Let's go to the room. He has no one there. " I don't think such messages. But it is precisely the format “Ah you are a villain” - there are two or three messages.

Karakulov did not tell relatives about his decision. He claims that on November 8 or 9, his relatives came to searches. According to him, after the outbreak of war, he tried to discuss what was happening with his parents, including a possible departure, but the conversation did not work out because they “watch TV”. When asked if he was worried that he would come for him “some Chepiga and Mishkin ”, he replied: “These tourists? How to tell you. When on November 8 or 9 they came to our family, of course, inner concern began to grow. Well, I'm worried, yes, but what's the use of these experiences? "

According to Karakulov, the FSO officers call Putin the chef and "in every way idol." He claims that approximately half of the service employees believe that back in 2014 it was necessary to “bomb the Maidan in Kyiv” in 2014, while others talk about the beginning of a full -scale invasion, that it was impossible to do otherwise.

Karakulov claims that he never communicated with Putin. According to him, the Russian president does not use a mobile phone and the Internet, and receives all the information "only from people who are directly close, he lives in a kind of information vacuum." He also said that the FSO officers still have to take a quarantine before any event with the participation of the president, "although everything is a little at a loss why this is still ongoing."

Employees do not discuss Putin’s health, Karakulov claims. At the same time, for all the years of his work in the FSO, due to Putin's illness, one or two business trips were canceled. According to him, in a conversation with an employee of the President’s Security Service, he heard that Putin and Alina Kabaeva live together.

He also talked about the special train of the president, which the media previously wrote about. According to him, it was often used in mid -2021. In addition, in each foreign business trip, Putin’s employees, according to Karakulov, claim the “negotiation cabin”, from which it is possible to “negotiate with guaranteed secrecy”. It is a cube of about two and a half meters high, where there is a workplace and a phone.

When asked how Putin has changed since 2009, when Karakulov began working in the FSO, the officer replied: “In his behavior, these are two different people. That is, we remember when the former director of the FSB became the Prime Minister, then the president, was energetic, active. Of course, until 2020 he was the same active, judging by business trips, there were really a lot of them. And now he is very closed. He protected himself from the whole world with all kinds of barriers, the same quarantine, lack of information. He was distorted by the perception of reality. "