“A crime war broke out in February 2022 and I could no longer compromise myself. I couldn’t stay in the service of this president. I consider him a war criminal.” Gleb Karakulov, captain of the guard of the Russian Federation (FGS), attacks Vladimir Putin, with whom he worked until mid-October 2022 as an engineer at the presidential communications directorate of the FGS. Karakulov suffered a crisis of conscience after the Russian war in Ukraine and came to the conclusion that he could no longer serve a man he considered a war criminal.
The President’s Protective Service engineer defected during Putin’s trip to Kazakhstan last October. Since Karakulov was against the occupation of Ukraine, he managed to go to Turkey with his family from Russia. He worked for the FSO unit, which provides encrypted communications to the Russian president and prime minister 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In an interview with the Dossier Center website, funded by Mikhail Khodorkovsky and rebooted by the Moscow Times, Karakulov explains that “staying at work as if nothing had happened would be a greater crime than running away.”
The description of the Kremlin leader in 007 is precise and touches on aspects known only to those working alongside Putin. Karakulov says that the President of Russia still does not use a smartphone or the Internet and wants to be able to watch state television channels everywhere, even during his duties abroad. “He’s been living in an information bubble for several years.” The engineer knows this well. During his 13 years of service, Karakulov traveled with Putin on 180 different missions.
What the engineer described as paranoia increased as a result of the pandemic. Despite the fall of Covid restrictions, Putin is still “self-isolating and we must all observe a strict quarantine for two weeks before any incident”. “His relationship to reality is distorted,” he stated. But Karakulov denies having serious health problems: “He’s in better shape than many people his age.”
The former security agent also described aspects of Putin’s family that would be an “open secret” to which FSO agents spoke freely. Talking to his colleagues, who often had short conversations with the daughters or comrades of the Kremlin leader, Karakulov would confirm the existence of the Palace on the Black Sea, which had been reported by Aleksei Navalny. As well as the existence of the same offices in different residences, so you can always believe that you are working in the Kremlin.
He saw Putin in person in his office in Sochi, while television announced that he had accepted someone at his home in Novo Ogarevo on the outskirts of Moscow. After the annexation of Crimea, Karakulov, unlike most of his compatriots, began to have reservations about Putin. Hence the decision to flee Russia with his family. Now he is calling on his former FSO colleagues not to follow Pitin’s orders. “What is happening now is beyond all conceivable and unimaginable borders. You must not follow criminal orders and serve this war criminal Vladimir Putin.”
Source: Today IT
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
