Leaked documents shown to CNN showed a rare glimpse inside Putin’s secret train, revealing how the Kremlin leader travels amid increasingly tight security and luxury.
From the outside, “Train Number One,” as it’s called in Russia, looks ordinary, its heavily armored carriages purposefully disguised in the usual Russian railway paint and grime.
But the train’s other 20 or so carriages — some updated as recently as last year — have remained a closely guarded secret, until now.
Pictures showed what the file center says is Putin’s private gym on the train.
A Russian dissident and former member of Putin’s personal protection service, Gleb Karakolov, said the Kremlin leader had increasingly chosen trains over planes in the run-up to the 2022 invasion of Ukraine to avoid tracking.
“Airplanes can always be detected, while there are too many trains and there is no real way to track them,” he added, noting that “this is just for secrecy, so that no one knows his movements.”
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2023-07-11 07:24:47
