It's been seven months since Putin's deepest secrets were revealed 

Vladimir Putin faced a lot of major challenges in 2023. Russia's stagnation on the frontlines and the betrayal of Wagner Group mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin undermined Putin's rule in Russia. But there was one incident that was even more revealing: the defection of Gleb Karakulov. 

Gleb Karakulov was a captain in Russia’s Federal Guard Service for over thirteen years before his opposition to the war in Ukraine led him to defect in October 2022, bringing with him a wealth of knowledge and insight into Vladimir Putin and his psyche. 

The Federal Guard Service is a powerful organization inside the Russian state tasked with protecting the country’s highest-ranking officials according to The Guardian. But Karakulov didn’t work for just any high-ranking official, he worked for Putin himself. 

“While he was not a confidant of Putin, Karakulov spent years in his service, observing him from 2009 through late 2022 on more than 180 trips abroad,” wrote Erika Kinetz of the Associated Press, who noted that Karakulov was “no ordinary defector.”

Photo by YouTube @khodorkovskylive

Karakulov was part of Russia’s Presidential Communications Directorate inside of the Federal Guard Service and worked for Putin securing his communications according to the non-profit investigative project Dossier Center, which published an interview Karakulov in April 2023.

Dossier Center was founded by exiled businessman and opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky with the express purpose of investigating the “criminal activity of various people associated with the Kremlin,” as stated on Khodorkovsky’s personal website. 

Karakulov spent ten hours speaking with Dossier Center about the inner workings of Putin and the Kremlin. Details from his story apparently matched “information obtained from databases and open sources” and his authenticity was established. 

Photo by YouTube @khodorkovskylive

“Karakulov is the highest-ranking intelligence officer in Russia’s recent history to defect to the West, " Dossier Centre wrote in a detailed post on its website about the defector, which also featured an edited one-hour video of their conversation with Karakulov. Here’s what he revealed. 

Photo by YouTube @khodorkovskylive

Putin was still obsessed with quarantines according to Karakulov, who said that before any trip abroad, he and others would have to perform a strict two-week quarantine, even for trips that only lasted as long as fifteen or twenty minutes. 

“We still have a self-isolating President,” Karakulov explained before going on to say that only those who observed the two-week quarantine would be considered clean enough to work in the same room as Putin.

Putin doesn't use a mobile phone or the internet while in Russia or abroad, and he receives all of his information “from his closest circle,” a situation Karakulov said had left Putin living in “an information vacuum.”

“Our president has lost touch with the world,” Karakulov 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 added. 

“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,” the former Federal Guard Service officer continued.

Learning that Putin was afraid for his life and living in an information bubble isn’t surprising according to Erika Kinetz, who said that Karakulov’s “account generally conforms with others that paint the Russian President as a once charismatic but increasingly isolated leader."

Karakulov also revealed Putin’s deep fear of assassination, though he noted he had never known of an attempt having ever been made and also confirmed that Putin does like to travel long distances using his armored train, thinking of it as less conspicuous. 

The Associated Press was able to confirm that Karakulov was listed as a wanted man by Russia’s Interior Ministry at the time, which lent more credibility to his statements. Unfortunately, it may have also meant that the rumors about Putin being sick were just that—rumors. 

When asked if Putin was sick, Karakulov said that he didn't know of any potential health issues and that any health problem would be related to his age and probably wasn’t serious. In Karakulov’s thirteen years working for Putin, he only ever canceled one foreign trip due to illness.