He Russian president lives “mirrored in paranoia”. He is “pathologically scared for the life of him”, constantly fearing being killed, and spends his days locked in a bubble, avoiding mobile and the internet.completely cut off from the world“.

Whoever confirms all this is (or rather, was) a captain of the highest-ranking Russian Security Service, close to Vladimir Putin himself in his day. His name is Gleb Karakulov, and at 36 years old defected from Russia at the start of the invasion of Ukraine. He does not hesitate to describe his former boss as a “war criminal”.

He assures that Putin has spent two years practically without leaving his houses, self-proclaimed “bunkers”. He also contributes another reason: the coronavirus. He says that The president has a “deadly panic” of being infected of COVID-19.

In addition, always according to Karakulov, the guards adore him almost like a God… and they try everything they are going to ingest. Whenever possible, he takes video conferences to avoid scrolling. And by the time he has no choice but to move, Putin has made that everything in Russia is designed to mislead and hide his true whereabouts at all times: he has a network of secret trains, clone offices in different cities…

Even so, this defector dismisses the theories that have been discussed in recent months that Putin suffered from some kind of terminal disease: “If you have any health problems, it must be due to your age. Well, you probably do. But it’s nothing too seriousI guess,” he says.

Karakulov was one of the first high command to defect over the invasion of Ukraine and hopes not to be the last. “I would like to address the Russian officials, including the FGS officers: they have information that is not broadcast on television. I have only seen a small part of it. Come, support me (with more evidence),” he asks them.

He was clear: he could not continue, he says, at the service of a criminal as obsessive as fearful and drunk with power.