Loss of control in the Kremlin: Top officials are increasingly fleeing Putin’s mischief from Russia. The Moscow regime is therefore massively restricting freedom of travel.
Moscow – A dictatorship, a war of aggression once morest Ukraine in violation of international law and the looming threat of forced conscription into the army: for many Russians there are enough reasons to flee. This also applies to civil servants and civil servants. Especially with them there seems to be an increasing exodus – which is why the Kremlin is already reacting by restricting their freedom – like in the old Soviet days. Nevertheless, some top people can always make themselves out of the dust.
Because of the Ukraine war: Top officials from the Kremlin Guard flee from Putin from Russia
On Tuesday (April 4) a spectacular case caused a stir: Gleb Karakulov, a member of the Kremlin Guard, is said to have managed to escape abroad. The engineer worked for the Federal Guard Service (FSO) for 13 years and ensured the supply of encrypted communication technology for President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin is a war criminal,” the top official said in an interview with the Dossier Center, which is funded by exiled Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Since the occupation of Crimea in 2014, well before the start of the Ukraine war, he has lost faith in the Russian power apparatus. But the attack on Ukraine and the forced recruitment of Russian reservists strengthened his decision to flee. He knows that defecting violates Russian law, Karakulov said. But: “It would have been an even greater crime if I had stayed in my job.”
Karakulov is by no means the only renegade civil servant. Since the start of the Ukraine war, many young, well-educated Russians have left the country, including officials from the state apparatus. The news portal reported at the end of October 2022 Wjorstkathat in some departments of the Moscow City Administration the number of male employees who are said to have left Russia amounts to “20 to 30 percent of all employees”. This cannot be verified independently.
Escape from Russia: Putin has officials remove the passport and issue a travel ban
In the meantime, however, concerns regarding the loss of many secret bearers in the Kremlin seem to have grown quite large. The Putin regime has already responded with countermeasures. According to the findings of the British secret service, many officials have already had their passports confiscated and travel banned. According to a paper published by the British secret service in March, particularly high-ranking civil servants are said to have been given freedom of movement even around their place of residence.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently confirmed when asked Financial Times the tightening of travel regulations. According to him, workers in “sensitive” areas have been restricted in their ability to travel abroad. This is not unusual in Russia. This was common practice even in Soviet times. Since the occupation of Crimea, the restrictions have been gradually reactivated and increasingly tightened once more, the report said.
Gleb Karakulov: Kremlin critic used trip abroad to escape from Putin in Ukraine war
Despite the restrictions, Kremlin guardsman Karakulov found a loophole. According to a report by Mosow Times the engineer left with his family in October 2022. For his escape he used a trip abroad by Putin to Kazakhstan. According to the information, he now lives in Turkey with his wife and children.
For Putin, the process is not without explosiveness. Because Karakulov worked in a unit that enabled secure round-the-clock communication for Putin. As a result, the technician stayed in close proximity to the Kremlin boss for years and, according to the information, accompanied him on 130 trips. This apparently gave him enough insight into Putin’s life.
For fear of poor health: Putin has been isolating for years – Insider unpacks
Putin is absolutely paranoid, Karakulov now reported in an interview with the Dossier Center. For fear of a Covid infection, the Kremlin chief had isolated himself for years and demanded that every employee who was allowed to see him had lived in quarantine for two weeks beforehand. “He’s in morbid fear for his life,” the insider said.
In order to protect himself and his family, Putin put together a network of isolation and deception. He has identical offices in his private homes to conceal his true whereregardings. He was once in Sochi with Putin, but a television interview recorded there suggested that Putin was in his Moscow office, the former civil servant reported.
However, such statements are not without risk. After all, most civil servants are not out of the clutches of Moscow when they flee. The Kremlin’s arms are always reaching out abroad to hunt down troublemakers. This was recently confirmed by Vladimir Osechkin CNN-Interview. The Kremlin critic has himself been on the run from the Putin regime for many years and, according to his own statements, has been helping many officials to leave the country since the beginning of the Ukraine war. But in doing so, he made himself a target. It was only in September 2022 that he said he escaped an attempted assassination in France. (jkf)
