Russian President Vladimir Putin does not like to spare himself maximum comfort - even when he travels on his personal train.
In a joint investigation with a number of Western media, the Russian website Dossier reveals new details about Putin's personal train. Among other things, it turns out that the Russian president has 22 cars at his service, including three saloon cars, three restaurant cars, two sleeping cars, two cars with communications equipment and three cars for transporting luxury cars. Most often, Putin's train consists of ten carriages. Non-on-call carriages are being handled or transferred for use by other senior officials.
Gym in the health car, photo: Dossier website
The researchers of "Dossier" - a project of exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky - received 25,5 documents from the servers of the company "Zircon Service", which builds the special cars.
Putin at the Kremlin, this week, photo: AP
For example, the researchers received photographs from the "health car," which was commissioned for Putin in 2017 at a cost of about $4.5 million and launched two years later. There is a cosmetic room in the car, which allows a variety of treatments to rejuvenate the skin, a sports hall with fitness equipment, and even a hammam. The car also has advanced medical care equipment, including a ventilator.
The Cosmetics Room, photo: "Dossier" website
Televisions are installed in the car, and the channels in all of them are arranged in an order that Putin knows. In order for Putin to get the picture without disruptions when traveling in areas with reduced reception, a research institute in Moscow has developed a special system that overcomes the problem.
Hammam on the train, photo: Dossier website
According to the investigation, eight of the 22 wagons were built during Soviet times, but most of them were technical (communications cars, cargo transportation, etc.). The wagons for Putin began construction in 2004. Since 2014, railway maintenance has cost Russian taxpayers $ 16 million.
Another look at the gym,
The total cost of Putin's railway project is $ 74.5 million. And that's not the end yet: additional carriages are being built for the presidential train, including a multimedia hall, another sports car, two deluxe cars and two restaurant cars with special radio equipment. Ownership of the train is confidential, but some of the owners of the cars are visible: the Russian railway company and Vemina, which carries out work for the Russian Shin Bet. Also on the carriages is the logo of Grand Service Express, which is owned by Putin's close friend, billionaire Yuli Kovalchuk.
Putin's train, photo: courtesy of the Dosier website
The wagons are inspected in various sections of Moscow Oblast, as well as in sections of tracks connecting Moscow with St. Petersburg, Valdai (where one of Putin's palaces is located), Voronezh and other places. For experiments, a cladding car is allocated, while the relevant sections are blocked for up to ten hours. Stations where the presidential train passes are secure. The maximum speed of the special train - 160 km / h.
President Putin, who also has a fleet of planes, moved to the train in the second half of 2021, in the months before the invasion of Ukraine. Gleb Karakulov, an employee of the Federal Security Service who fled to the West, said that after the invasion, the frequency of its use increased even more. The reason: fear of the plane being intercepted, which can even be tracked through websites on the Internet. In recent months, it has been reported that for Putin's personal use, railways have been laid leading to his estates.
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During the attempted coup against Defense Minister Shoigu, conducted by Wagner Force chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, it was reported that one of Putin's planes took off from Moscow towards St. Petersburg. It's unclear whether Putin was on the plane at the time — or whether he was using the safer train.
Zircon did not respond to Dossier's inquiries. A Kremlin spokeswoman told CNN — one of the partners in the investigation — that "Putin has no health car."
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