A protection officer who worked directly for Vladimir Putin has defected from Russia labelling him a “war criminal”.
Gleb Karakulov, 35, is a captain in the Federal Guard Service [known as the FGS or FSO] who escaped via Istanbul to safety.
He revealed that Putin is paranoid about his personal security and assassination attempts and that he opts to stay “in his bunker” rather than make trips like he used to.
He is "mortally afraid” of Covid and is isolating himself for the fourth year.
Yet the dictator appears in good health for a 70-year-old, testimony which possibly contradicts repeated claims that he is ailing although it is unclear the captain had access to Putin’s health secrets.
Dossier independent media - which revealed his testimony - claims Karakulov is the highest ranking defector so far from Putin’s immediate security circle.
Karakulov - an engineer - in the presidential communications directorate had access to Putin’s personal communications, according to Dossier.
He was reportedly responsible for earlier leaks about Putin’s armoured train.
Putin is so concerned about Western bugging that he takes a special box with him on foreign trips to prevent his secret talks from leaking.
His guards - the FSO is also known as the Federal Protection Service and headed by Putin’s loyal henchman Viktor Zolotov - “call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms”.
His paranoia is shown by him never using a mobile phone.
“I mean, in all my years of service, I haven’t seen him once with a mobile phone,” he said.
“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.”
This means his knowledge of events is filtered via the secret services - and what he watches on state controlled Russian TV.
Asked if Covid-fearing 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.”
Asked about rumours of Putin’s being terminally ill, he appeared unaware of credible information that the dictator has had or still suffers from 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 said: “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.”
Karakulov said: “He is in better health than many other people his age. He has annual medical checkups.”
He seemed remarkably ignorant of Putin’s private life with gymnast Alina Kabaeva, 39, and their young children.
But he confirmed Putin has a £1 billion cliff top palace at Gelendzhik on the Black Sea, and a private yacht Scheherazade, as earlier revealed by Russia’s independent media.
It is unclear where the defector is now but is assumed to be in the West.
But he issued an appeal to officers to come forward with evidence about Putin as a “war criminal”.
“I would like to address Russian officers, including the FGS officers,” he stated.
“You have information that is not broadcast on television.
“I have only seen a tiny part of it.
“Come forward, support me [with more evidence].
“You will help our citizens to learn the truth.
“I am sure that you had questions about the Commander-in-Chief’s actions before, but the oath forced you not to ask [them] and to smoothly execute his orders.
“However, what is happening now [with the war in Ukraine] is beyond the pale, it defies reason.
“You mustn’t follow criminal orders and serve this war criminal, Vladimir Putin. And I consider him a war criminal.”
Karakulov said his invasion of Ukraine “is simply beyond comprehension.
“Multiple rocket launchers are being used, residential buildings and critical infrastructure are being hit.
“How many nameless victims of this war are there, how many of them are children? How many more such victims are required before you stop putting up with it?
“What is happening now in Ukraine, all this destruction, this war of aggression, terrorism, and genocide of the Ukrainian people - there is no other word for it - all this is a criminal offence.
“Our President has become a war criminal.”
He urged those still inside Putin’s security service: “You have to stop following these criminal orders. The FGS [FSO] officers are around the President all the time.
“You can just go in and indicate that this is a crime. It is up to you to stop this madness very quickly. I wish you would do that because it would save many lives.”
In a message to Russian people he said: “Our President has lost touch with the world.
“He has been living in an information cocoon for the past couple of years, spending most of his time in his residences, which the media very fittingly call bunkers. He is pathologically afraid for his life.
“He surrounds himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantines and an information vacuum.
“He only values his own life and the lives of his family and friends. The lives of your family and friends are of no interest to him.
“By tearing men from their families and sending them to be slaughtered in sovereign Ukraine, he shows he does not care in the least about what is happening to our country and Ukraine, about the fact that he brings trouble, destruction, and death to the brotherly people of Ukraine and to us.”
