Kremlin Secrets: He worked for Vladimir Putin, fled Russia and tells it all

On October 14, a Russian engineer named Gleb Karakulov took a flight from Kazakhstan to Turkey with his wife and daughter. He turned off his phone to avoid the crescendo of angry urgent messages, said goodbye to his life in Russia and tried to calm her heart, which was pounding.

It wasn’t just any Russian deserter. Karakulov was an officer in President Vladimir Putin’s secret personal security service. This 35-year-old engineer is one of the few Russians who escaped and made public private details of Putin’s lifeas well as potentially confidential information.

Karakulov, who is responsible for ensuring secure communications, said he had to flee and speak, despite the risks to himself and his family, due to his moral opposition to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and her fear of dying there.

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

An isolated and paranoid leader

Karakulov’s account largely agrees with others who describe the Russian president as once charismatic but increasingly isolatedwho doesn’t use cell phones or the internet and who insists on having access to Russian state television wherever he goes.

He also revealed new details about how Putin’s paranoia appears to have worsened since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Putin now prefers to avoid planes and travel in special armored trains, he added, ordering in October the creation of a bunker at the Russian embassy in Kazakhstan, equipped with a protected communication line, the first time Karakulov had complied with a request of this type.

A defection like Karakulov’s “has a high level of interest,” said a senior security official from a NATO country who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive political issues.

“It would be seen as a blow to the president himself because he is extremely concerned with his safety and his safety is compromised,” he adds.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Not even Karakulov’s father or brother.

As an engineer in a field unit of the Presidential Communications Office of the Federal Protective Service (FSO), Karakulov was responsible for establishing secure communications for the Russian president and prime minister wherever they went.

Though he was not Putin’s confidant, Karakulov spent years in his employ, observing him unusually closely from 2009 until the end of 2022.

Karakulov, his wife and daughter they went underground and it was impossible to speak to them directly due to security restrictions.

The Dossier Center, a London-based think tank funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, has interviewed Karakulov multiple times and has shared more than six hours of video and transcripts of those interviews with Associated pressas well as with the Danish State Broadcasting Corporation, Swedish television SVT and the Norwegian State Broadcasting Corporation.

The Dossier Center confirmed the authenticity of Karakulov’s passport and FSO-issued work ID card, and verified his biography details against Russian government records, leaked personal data and social media posts, which they have all been scrutinized by the Palestinian Authority.