Russland

[Schneemann]

Zu den bereits vielfach geäußerten Vermutungen, wonach Putin den Kontakt zur Außenwelt, vielleicht auch zur Realität, verloren haben könnte (und dass er sich allenfalls noch das aus dem Newsspektrum vorsetzen lässt, von dem seine Lakaien glauben, dass er es hören möchte), gibt es neuerliche Verdachtsmomente. Ein mutmaßlich hochrangiger Überläufer aus dem FSO hat nun diese Vermutungen nochmals bestätigt. Und zugleich auch ein Bild gezeichnet, dass einen Staatschef zeigt, dessen Paranoia beinahe an Enver Hoxha oder Ceaușescu erinnert...

Russian defector sheds light on Putin paranoia and his secret train network [...]

Gleb Karakulov, who served as a captain in the Federal Protection Service (FSO), a powerful body tasked with protecting Russia’s highest-ranking officials, said the measures were designed to mask the whereabouts of the Russian president, whom he described as “pathologically afraid for his life”. [...]

The Guardian has reviewed an interview with Karakulov by the Dossier Centre, a political information outfit founded by the exiled Russian billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and confirmed the credentials of the senior Russian communications engineer, who travelled with Putin extensively and helped transmit some of his most secret messages. [...] “Our president has lost touch with the world,” he said. “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.” Karakulov described a virtual state within a state that includes firefighters, food testers and other engineers who travel with Putin on his trips abroad, providing a rare first-hand insight into the levels of paranoia and sheltered lifestyle of the Russian president. “They call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms,” he said. [...]

Karakulov said Putin used identical offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo, and that the secret services used fake motorcades and decoy planes to pretend he was leaving. “This is a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence, in the first place, and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life,” he said. [...] “He has shut himself off from the world,” Karakulov said. “His take on reality has become distorted.” [...]

Karakulov described his risky escape to the west during Putin’s visit to Kazakhstan. During the trip, his wife and daughter secretly flew to Astana. They postponed the defection several times until nearly the end of the trip, when Karakulov told his fellow officers he was feeling unwell and then fled with his family to the airport. The Dossier Centre said Karakulov’s current whereabouts were unknown.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/a...cret-train

Schneemann