Elite Russian security officer who defected calls Putin a paranoid ‘war criminal’

A former officer with President Vladimir Putin’s elite security unit has defected and labeled the Russian leader a paranoid “war criminal” who has lost his grip on reality.

Gleb Karakulov said he served as captain and engineer in a field unit of the presidential communications department, the Federalnaya Sluzhba Okhrany (FSO), or Federal Protective Service, one of the most secretive branches of Russia’s security services.

In a sweeping interview released Tuesday, he said that the Russian president has become increasingly paranoid, and that he prefers to avoid airplanes and travels on a train that looks like a regular train but has been adapted for Putin’s needs.