The Korean dictator's Mercedes Maybach almost pales next to it.
During a meeting in 2023,
Vladimir Putin
shows a delighted
Kim Jong-un
around his own vehicle.
An Aurus equipped with armor capable of withstanding point-blank heavy weapons fire, a jamming system and telecommunications tools.
A Kremlin placed on a frame.
It is with these images that the BFMTV documentary opens, broadcast Monday evening, devoted to the very high security surrounding the Russian head of state.
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On the subject of Putin's convoys, the channel interviews Pascal Bitot-Panelli, former French commander of the protection service for high-ranking personalities.
Who worked in particular during official Russian visits to Paris.
To cover his tracks, he explains,
“
sometimes his services run not two, but three similar limousines.
For more sensitive routes, there may even be several processions following different routes.
»
In his country, Vladimir Putin uses the train, in his eyes more discreet and safer than the plane.
Also read: Vladimir Putin's speech to the Nation: “The Russian Empire cannot exist without war”
DNA cleaning
The head of the Kremlin entrusts his security to the powerful Federal Protection Service (FSO), responsible for taking care of everything relating to his daily life and his travels.
And to watch over the state apparatus more generally.
Russian investigative journalists interviewed here estimate that there are no fewer than 50,000 men.
We also learn that the dishes served at Poutine, systematically tasted, are cooked with food from private farms.
Among other reasons, to avoid poisoning attempts.
Also read: “I thought Putin was rational, he’s actually paranoid”
Vigilance would also concern the president's DNA.
When traveling abroad, he most often drinks from his own mug.
If this is not the case, the glasses or champagne glasses used are “cleaned” by his men so that no genetic information can be recovered by the host countries.
It was also to prevent the Russian services from seizing his own that Emmanuel Macron, in February 2022, refused an anti-Covid test before going to the Kremlin.
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The health crisis and then the war in Ukraine likely contributed to intensifying the isolation of a Putin who had become
“
paranoid
”
, in the words of Gleb Karakoulov, a former member of the FSO who defected.
“
For two years, he has spent most of his time in his second homes ,
”
assures this young man from Turkey where he now lives.
In power for twenty-four years, destined to remain there for years to come after the March election, the former KGB spy is, according to him,
"
unhealthily afraid that someone is trying to kill his life
.
"