Secret train, bunkers and Putin's illness. What did the FSO officer who escaped from Russia

An employee of the Federal Security Service (FSO) Gleb Karakulov, who was responsible for the connection of the first persons of the state, escaped from the country with his family in October 2022. In an interview with Dossier, he told how exactly he managed to leave Russia, confirmed the presence of Putin's palace in Gelendzhik and spoke about the health of the president. North Realiy retell his interview.

Who is Gleb Karakulov

Gleb Karakulov in 2009 released from the A.F. Mozhaisk Military Space Academy. Six months before the release, he submitted documents for the device for work in the FSO. All this time he was checked: they checked a personal file, conducted tests for professional acceptance and interviews. Karakulov worked as an engineer in the Presidential Communications Department and ensured the encryption of the President and Prime Minister, including on business trips.

How Karakulov escaped

Engineer Karakulov remained to be finalized before retirement for two years. He planned to wait for this moment and leave the service. When a full -scale invasion of Ukraine began, Karakulov decided that he needed to quit retired.

“In February of this year, a criminal war began, and I could not make a deal with his conscience. I simply could not be in the service of this president. I consider this person a war criminal. Although I did not participate in the military operations, I do not consider it possible to execute his criminal orders or just in his service,” says Karakulov.

He claims that due to the emotional reaction to the war, he was sick for three months, and also made a new passport, so he did not leave the country during this time. After the mobilization announcement of September 21, 2022, Karakulov realized that upon dismissal he became an reserve officer and could be called up. He decided to leave the country during a business trip to Astana in October 2022 - there was a summit with the participation of Vladimir Putin.

Karakulova’s wife also arrived in Astana with her child and lived in another hotel. On the last day of the business trip on October 14, Karakulov told colleagues in the FSO that he would go to buy souvenirs, and he himself went to the airport with his wife. They registered for a flight to Istanbul, the flight was detained for an hour, but the plane still flew away. While Karakulov was still in Russia, his colleagues were looking for him, but, as he claims, "there were no messages." Relatives of Karakulov did not know that he was leaving the country. Later they came to them with searches - a criminal case of desertion during the mobilization period was opened against the engineer. He does not maintain contact with relatives.

How Putin receives information

Putin does not use a mobile phone and Internet. Karakulov confirmed that the president is brought by "daddy", access to him has a very limited number of people. “All the information he receives is only from people who are directly close. He lives in a kind of information vacuum,” says Karakulov.

The president is watching TV. On trips in the place where Putin lives, there must be Russian television channels, in particular, the Russia TV channel.

“Of course, he was just as active until 2020, judging by business trips, there were really a lot of them. And now he was very closed. He fenced himself with all kinds of barriers from the whole world, the same quarantine, the lack of information. He was distorted by the perception of reality,” says Karakulov.

Quarantine before meeting with Putin

After the beginning of the Pandemia of Coronavirus, Putin was isolated so as not to become infected. This quarantine has been going on for three years, despite the fact that most of the restrictions have already been lifted around the world.

Before meeting with the president, the FSO employees are sitting on quarantine for two weeks, even if they are present at an event that lasts 15-20 minutes. Adjutants of the president pass "PCR tests almost several times a day.

Until 2020, Putin "very often visited trips," says Karakulov. Then he "got into the bunker" and the number of business trips decreased to one or three per year.

Putin's health

Karakulov says that in terms of health "he is probably better than many other people of his age." Putin undergoes annual medical checks. At the same time, several trips were canceled due to President’s illness.

Relatives of Putin

Here's what he knows about children and loved ones Putin Karakulov:

Ekaterina Tikhonova, who is considered the daughter of Vladimir Putin, is resting in a residence in Sochi simultaneously with the president. She is guarded by the FSO officer. Presumably, the same scheme is used for the second alleged daughter - Maria Vorontsova.

Karakulov can "indirectly, but confidently confirm" that Putin and former athlete Alina Kabaeva (she is called the mother of Putin’s children) live together.

Palace in Gelendzhik

Karakulov, citing his colleague, who checks the connection in Putin’s residence in Sochi, confirmed that Gelendzhik has a Putin Palace, which was described in the FBK investigation.

Special train

A former FSO engineer said that there is a secret special train for the president who began to appear in the schedule of the special communications service in 2014 or 2015. More often it began to be used in 2021. “It looks like an ordinary train, absolutely the same as everyone else, gray with a red strip, Russian Railways train,” says Karakulov.

The train began to be used because "it is more secretive."

“The president also has a negotiation cabin that we carry into each passage. This is a place from which negotiations with guaranteed secrecy can be carried out. The cabin, of course, is bulky. This is such a cube about 2.5 m high. A workplace and a phone are organized inside, which can be said without fear that the conversation may hear or consider foreign intelligence,” the engineer added.

Bunkers and the same rooms

Previously, Karakulov and his special communications colleagues did not equip equipment in bomb shelters, but during a trip to Kazakhstan (time is not specified), one of the phones was put not only in the Russian Embassy in this country, but in the bomb shelter.

Most often, Putin visits the residence on Valdai, but at the same time, all residences have the same rooms so that it is not clear where the president is located. “He has rooms in St. Petersburg, that in Sochi, that in Novo-Ogarev-they are the same, everything is absolutely identical there. It happened that I know that he is in Sochi. There is a TV in the background, they are going on news, they show that he spent some meeting in Novo-Ogarev. And I ask his colleague in Sochi:“ He has already flown, he says, when Putin is specially created in Sochi, he is specially created in Sochi. The impression that he flies up.

• In March 2023, in Barnaul, the court sentenced Mikhail Zhilin to 6.5 years in a maximum regime of Major FSO, who escaped to Kazakhstan due to the war with Ukraine. He worked as the head of the shift in the management of special communications and information of the FSO of Russia in the Siberian Federal District, was responsible for the government’s government connection with the regions and formally had access to state secret, which is why he was prohibited from traveling outside the country. In SENGYAR of 2022, Zhilin crossed the border of Russia and Kazakhstan, was detained, but soon was released on a recognizance not to leave. He requested political asylum, but in December he was deported to Russia.