An example of a bizarre delusion is when an individual believes that his or her organs have been replaced with someone else's without leaving any wounds or scars. Delusions are considered 'bizarre' if they are clearly implausible and peers within the same culture cannot understand them. This article was amended on 5 April 2023 because an earlier version mistakenly referred to Putin’s residency in Novo-Ogaryovo as being in the Valdai national park.Delusions are fixed beliefs that do not change, even when a person is presented with conflicting evidence. While the strict quarantine regime has fuelled rumours that Putin may be seriously ill and worried about complications from coronavirus, Karakulov said he had seen no indications that Putin was in poor health. He said he had still not spoken with his parents, who were supporters of the war. He claimed he had opposed the war on Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, but had waited to persuade his wife to flee together as a family. The Guardian confirmed that Karakulov was listed as a wanted man in the Russian interior ministry’s public database of criminal suspects. The Dossier Centre said Karakulov’s current whereabouts were unknown. They postponed the defection several times until nearly the end of the trip, when Karakulov told his fellow officers he was feeling unwell and then fled with his family to the airport. During the trip, his wife and daughter secretly flew to Astana. Karakulov described his risky escape to the west during Putin’s visit to Kazakhstan. The interview did not give information on what messages Karakulov had encrypted for Putin or other top officials, or more information on Putin’s preparations for the war or strategy.

“His take on reality has become distorted.” “He has shut himself off from the world,” Karakulov said. He said Putin’s behaviour and lifestyle had altered significantly since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when the president retreated from most travel and public appearances. “This is a ruse to confuse foreign intelligence, in the first place, and secondly, to prevent any attempts on his life,” he said. Karakulov said Putin used identical offices in St Petersburg, Sochi and Novo-Ogaryovo, and that the secret services used fake motorcades and decoy planes to pretend he was leaving. Putin is still in quarantine and requires all staff working in the same room as him to also undergo a two-week quarantine, severely limiting the number of people who have personal contact with him. As an engineer in the presidential communications department, he was responsible for setting up secure communications for the Russian president and prime minister.

“He only receives information from his closest circle, which means that he lives in an information vacuum,” he said. Putin did not use a mobile phone or the internet, Karakulov said, and did not even bring an internet specialist with him on foreign trips. He confirmed that Putin relies heavily for information on reports provided by his security services. Karakulov also described setting up secret communications for Putin on planes, helicopters, lavish yachts and even in a bomb shelter at the Russian embassy in Kazakhstan during an October 2022 visit when Karakulov ultimately fled to Turkey and from there to an undisclosed country in the west. “They call him the Boss, worship him in every way and only ever talk of him in those terms,” he said.

Karakulov described a virtual state within a state that includes firefighters, food testers and other engineers who travel with Putin on his trips abroad, providing a rare first-hand insight into the levels of paranoia and sheltered lifestyle of the Russian president.

He only values his own life and the lives of his family and friends.” He surrounds himself with an impenetrable barrier of quarantines and an information vacuum. He is pathologically afraid for his life. “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. “Our president has lost touch with the world,” he said. In the interview, Karakulov called Putin a “war criminal” and told fellow officers they should come forward with information being hidden from the Russian public. He appears to be the highest-ranking intelligence official to defect since the start of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Karakulov was a member of the “field team” of the Presidential Communications Directorate that encrypts the messages of top Russian officials and estimated he had travelled on more than 180 trips with top officials. Gleb Karakulov pictured during an interview in Turkey in December 2022 from a video provided by the Dossier Center.

Paranoid delusions