Delhi, April 7: Russian President Vladimir Putin travels in a special train so he can avoid using planes that can be monitored on flight trackers, said Gleb Karakulov, a former federal security officer who worked with the Russian leader's security detail. Karakulov has made some startling revelations about the extreme measures that are taken to protect the Russian President. These include secret train networks and decoy planes, claimed Karakulov.

Gleb Karakulov served as a captain in the Federal Protection Service (FSO). The FSO is a powerful organisation in Russia that is tasked with protecting Russia’s highest-ranking officials. Karakulov said the measures were designed to mask the whereabouts of the Russian president, whom he described as “pathologically afraid for his life.” Karakulov went on to say that Putin is a “war criminal.” Vladimir Putin Will Need To Explain Russians Why Russia Ended Up Being Heavily Sanctioned, Says Lithuania Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.

Karakulov made these revelations in an interview with the Dossier Centre, a political information outfit founded by the exiled Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky. ICC Issues Arrest Warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin Says ‘Meaningless’.

Putin does not use a mobile phone or the internet and his behaviour and lifestyle had significantly changed since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic in 2020, Karakulov mentioned.

Karakulov said that Putin uses a covert train for "stealth purposes" so that it cannot be tracked on any information resource, according to Guardian. Karakulov described setting up secret communications for Putin on planes, helicopters, lavish yachts and even in a bomb shelter at the Russian embassy in Kazakhstan during an October 2022 visit when Karakulov ultimately fled to Turkey and from there to an undisclosed country in the west as he was unhappy with Putin’s attacking Ukraine.

The former FSO member also said that Putin's secret services use decoy motorcades and planes to mask his movements from foreign intelligence and prevent an assassination attempt.

Proekt, the Russian investigative outlet had previously reported about a secret railway network including parallel lines and stations near Vladimir Putin’s residences in the Valdai national park in Novo-Ogaryovo, and his Bocharov Ruchei residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Karakulov said that Putin now spends most of his time in his residences and surrounds himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantines and an information vacuum. He said Putin only values his own life and those of his family and friends.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 07, 2023 03:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).