Gleb Karakulov, who worked in Putin’s security detail for years before fleeing to Turkey, said ‘everyone is a little perplexed as to why this is still going on’.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is still on high alert for Covid-19 and has been forcing staff to quarantine, according to a former officer who worked with his security detail for over a decade. The Russian leader has been keeping himself on lockdown mode until at least late 2022, Gleb Karakulov, a former captain in the Presidential Communications Directorate of the Federal Guard Service, told the Dossier Centre for Investigative Journalism. “We still have a self-isolating president,” Karakulov said, per the Dossier Centre. “We have to observe a strict quarantine for two weeks before any event, even those lasting 15 to 20 minutes.” Karakulov was in charge of encrypting Putin’s communications, and travelled with him on more than 180 overseas business trips over 13 years, he told the Dossier Centre. He escaped in October while accompanying Putin on a trip to Kazakhstan, and moved to Turkey with his family – a rare case of a high-ranking intelligence officer defecting from the Russian government. ‘Pathologically afraid for his life’: aide says Putin doesn’t use mobile phone The former FSO officer said Putin only allowed staff members to work in the same room as him after a two-week quarantine period, per the Dossier Centre.
