It is October 2022 and Vladimir Putin is visiting neighboring Kazakhstan. Gleb Karakulov, an officer of the Federal Security Service (FSO), has arrived a few days earlier. As an employee of Putin’s security force, his job is to encrypt and arrange secure communications during the president’s travels.
What no one knows is that Karakulov has secretly planned to defect to the West – and on the last day of the Kazakhstan trip, he takes action.
– I could not remain in the president’s service. I consider him a war criminal, says Gleb Karakulov.
Worked for Putin for 13 years
SVT Nyheter has taken part in interviews that the London-based excavation editorial Dossier Center has done with the defector Karakulov. The publication is part of the research for the “Shadow War” series, an upcoming review of Russian intelligence operations in the Nordics by SVT, DR, NRK and Yle.
According to the Dossier Center, Karakulov is the highest-ranking intelligence officer to defect to the West in recent years. With his 13 years in the president’s service, he can provide an insight into a closed world.
– Putin does not use the internet or mobile phone. He only receives information from his innermost circle, which means he lives in an information vacuum.
Growing paranoia
Gleb Karakulov states that he has made over 180 trips with Putin and that since he started in 2009 he has noticed a growing paranoia in the president.
– All food is inspected and tested by a special group. On trips, firefighters and engineers come along to examine all premises, he says and continues:
– The president has a phone booth that we take with us on every trip abroad. It is an approximately 2.5 meter high cube in which you can talk without risking being eavesdropped by foreign intelligence services.
However, he does not believe the speculation that Vladimir Putin would be seriously ill.
– He probably has better health than many others his age. During the entire time I worked there, only one or two business trips were canceled due to illness.
The threat to Gleb Karakulov is great and he is now in a secret location together with his wife and daughter.
