Elite Russian security officer defects

Gleb Karakulov, a communications engineer in Russia’s Federal Protective Service, fled to Turkey with his family in October 2022, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. He left because he didn’t want his young daughter to be brainwashed in preschool, he said. Karakulov, who worked closely with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Putin is healthy but growing increasingly paranoid. The AP reports were based on materials from the Dossier Center, a London-based investigative group funded by Russian opposition figure Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Only a few ranking Russian officers have spoken publicly after fleeing the country.

How did he escape? Karakulov’s team was attending a series of official meetings in Kazakhstan in early October. His wife and daughter followed two days later, staying in a separate hotel. On his last day in Kazakhstan, Karakulov told his team he was going out to buy souvenirs, joined his family in a taxi, and set off for the airport.

Dig deeper: Listen to Jill Nelson and Mary Reichard’s report on The World and Everything in It podcast about the Internation Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Putin.