Putin ‘pathologically afraid for his life’, never uses mobile phone, says Russian defector
- Gleb Karakulov, whose role involved encrypting Putin’s communications, said the president gathers news from his inner circle and state TV
- Karakulov added Putin lives in an ‘information vacuum’ and was ‘pathologically afraid for his life’
Putin instead chooses to gather information from his inner circle and state TV news channels, Gleb Karakulov, a former engineer and captain in the Presidential Communications Directorate of the Federal Guard Service, told the Dossier Centre for Investigative Journalism.
He said his own role involved encrypting Putin’s communications and regularly accompanying him on international trips, first travelling with Putin on a business trip in October 2009, per the Dossier Centre.
Karakulov said he has been on over 180 trips since he started working for the Federal Guard Service.
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But on one trip in October 2022, to Kazakhstan, Karakulov fled to Turkey with his family, becoming the highest-ranking intelligence officer to defect to the West in Russia’s recent history, according to the Dossier Centre.
In a wide-ranging interview with the investigative outlet, which is funded by the exiled Russian businessman Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Karakulov offered a unique insight into how Putin gets his information.