Putin 'pathologically afraid for his life' claims Russian defector

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long been dubbed paranoid by his critics. Every other day, some new report or revelation comes up that supports their speculations.

A former officer at President Vladimir Putin's elite security unit who defected last year has now made several shocking claims about the kind of life Putin leads. He said that Putin has a secret train network to travel, identical offices at different locations, and personal bunkers.

Gleb Karakulov, a former Russian engineer, fled his home country last year in October along with his wife and daughter. He was an officer in Putin's secretive elite personal security service and had accompanied his president on as many as 180 trips.

He is no ordinary defector as he was responsible for secure communications when he worked for Putin. He spoke at length about Russia, Putin, and the Russian war in Ukraine during an interview.

"Our president has become a war criminal," Karakulov told The Guardian. "Putin fears assassination plots. He spends most of his time living in a bunker at the Russian Embassy in Kazakhstan outfitted with a secure communications line," he said.

He went on to claim that the Russian president is "pathologically afraid for his life" and uses a covert train for "stealth purposes." Putin does not even use a mobile phone.

"In all my service, I have never seen him with a mobile phone. All the information he receives is only from people close to him. That is, he lives in a kind of information vacuum," he was quoted as saying by the publication.

Adding that his 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 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," Gleb Karakulov revealed." He went on to describe how firefighters, food testers and other engineers accompany Putin on his trips abroad.

Putin has shut himself off from the world and is still in quarantine. All his staff has to undergo a two-week quarantine before any event, claimed Karakulov.

The defector is currently living at an undisclosed location and fears for his life. He says that he does not support the war in Ukraine and that is what made him speak out despite the massive risks associated with it.

The Dossier Centre, a London-based investigative group funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky, authenticated Karakulov's identity and credentials, per The Associated Press.

Karakulov is not the first person to have made such claims about Putin. Several conspiracy theories have cropped up about how Russian President Vladimir Putin is getting increasingly paranoid as the war between Russia and Ukraine drags on.

Some reports claimed he uses body doubles and that he has been sick for a while. Others claim that he has been living on an isolated property with his alleged lover.

In the latest public display of paranoia, Putin stood around 60 feet away from diplomats while delivering a speech inside the Alexander Hall of the Kremlin Palace. The event was held to announce new Russian ambassadors to the United States and the European Union. Putin later clarified that he had to resort to such a measure due to Covid-19 precautions.

Last year, Putin gave people the chance to make speculations about his health as well after he chose to sit at the other end of a 13-foot table during a meeting with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron.

Several reports have constantly been claiming that the Russian leader has not been keeping well. In some footage released in recent times, he appears to be struggling with motor control. However, all the reports about his health are unverified.