A paranoid Vladimir Putin is now travelling in a specially-made armoured train instead of his usual Flying Kremlin plane.
The Russian leader has taken to the railways as he is reportedly scared of being tracked and shot out of the sky when flying in his presidential plane.
Despite elaborate precautions for his safety since the war began to avoid airspace close to Ukraine, Putin reportedly remains anxious.
Fear of flying
His train is camouflaged in grey and red to look like a Russian normal passenger train, making it visually almost indistinguishable from them.
Putin’s transition to rail comes as a former KGB colleague who attended spy school with the Russian leader said the war in Ukraine has increased the president’s anxiety.
The Russian president’s train boasts radio antennae for special communications fixed to the roof of certain carriages, covered by casings, and has been upgraded to be more secure.
It has reinforced axles like heavy freight trains because of the weight of the armour on the carriages. It requires three engines at the front, and has one at the rear.
On the side of the train is the logo of Grand Service Express, a company which Dossier alleges is linked to close Putin associate Yuri Kovalchuk.
Regular trains are halted to allow the Putin express to speed to its destinations.
Putin rarely admits to using this train in public, and has not been photographed on it since 2012.
‘For the president of the aggressor country, it is indeed worth worrying about his safety,’ said journalist Ilya Rozhdestvensky.
‘Several of Putin’s residences which he usually got to by air are located in an area where flights are significantly limited, due to combat activities.
‘That is to say, if the president feels like visiting his palace near Gelendzhik [on the Black Sea], there is no guarantee that there will not be an attempt to shoot down his plane’.
In April last year the Ukrainians sank his flagship Moskva cruiser in the Black Sea, where he has several favourite residences.
Putin has also used it to reach his luxury residence at Valdai, between Moscow and St Petersburg, it is claimed.
For this reason he is now using more frequently his specially constructed armoured train rather than his Flying Kremlin presidential IL-96-300PU plane.
Invincible and unstoppable propaganda stunts
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long sought to project an image of invincibility through his notorious macho PR stunts and aggressive assertions of Russia’s role on the world stage.
But according to a Wednesday report in the Daily Beast that cited the Russian independent outlet Verstka, the Russian leader increasingly feared his life.
The report said he was so concerned about being assassinated amid the fallout from the invasion of Ukraine that he was refusing to travel from the country.
The source — whom Verstka described as a high-ranking Russian official — said the feeling “behind the scenes of the Kremlin” was that Putin was wary of traveling anywhere and that “he has no sense of security.”
According to the report, recent events had heightened the Russian president’s paranoia.
IL-22 and A-50 downed
On January 14th, Ukraine claimed that its air defense crews shot down two key Russian aircraft used for command and control on the battlefield. The move was believed to be a major blow to Moscow.
One Beriev A-50 as well as an Ilyushin Il-22 were flying along the coast of the Sea of Azov in different areas when they were targeted by Ukrainian air defenses and later reported as destroyed by state media in Ukraine not long after the planes were shot down.
RBC Ukraine reported that the A-50 was shot down immediately according to sources in the country’s defense forces. The Il-22 suffered the same fate as the A-50. However, the Il-22 managed to stay in the air and land in Russia.
The Ukrainian news outlet released a recording from the crew of the Il-22 radioing out a distress signal. Forbes translated a portion of the signal and reported the crew radioed that they were “urgently requesting ambulance and fire crew.”
On January 15th, Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhny confirmed the reports in a Telegram post: “I thank the Air Force for a perfectly planned and executed operation in the Pryazovia region,” he wrote according to The Kyiv Independent.
The UK Ministry of Defense assessed an A-50 had exploded and subsequently crashed into the Sea of Azov on January 14th, and noted that the targeting of the airplane on mission was a significant development in the conflict.
“It is likely that Russia will now be forced to reconsider limiting the operational areas of its aircraft,” the defense ministry wrote in its January 17th update on the war in Ukraine. “The A-50 is critical to the Russian air surveillance picture over the battlespace.”
The A-50 was described as a “priority target” for Kyiv by Ukriaian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat according to BBC News. Justin Bronk is a specialist in air warfare and explained the importance of the plane’s value to the Russian war effort.
Bronk called the A-50 a “key command, control and surveillance platform” that allowed Russian air assets and surface-to-air missile systems with “long-range early warning and target information about Ukrainian low-flying aircraft.”
The loss of the A-50 is particularly damaging for Russia since it operates so few of the aircraft in its armed forces. The UK Ministry of Defense assessed that the Kremlin only had roughly eight airframes that could be used to cover its areas of operation.
Despite having eight airframes, defense ministry analysts assessed that “the increased stress on the remaining airframes coupled with the loss of the crew will likely constrain longer-term mission sustainability.”
The UK Defense Ministry’s prediction regarding Moscow reconsidering the operation limit of its A-50 aircraft was also quite accurate since in the days that followed the attacks it appeared as if Russia was being far more cautious with its assets.
In its January 19th update on the war in Ukraine, the UK Defense Ministry reported that Russia had begun operating another A-50 but the new plane appeared to be restricted to flying over Russian territory in the Krasnodar region.
“This activity is highly likely indicative of a reduced risk appetite for the airframes and an attempt to preserve remaining A-50 MAINSTAY at a loss to its overall effectiveness over Ukraine,” the defense ministry explained.
“Despite no official position from Russia on the loss of the MAINSTAY, this activity likely demonstrates a tacit Russian acknowledgment of a successful targeting operation by the Ukrainians against a high-value air asset,” the ministry continued.
The Defense Ministry added that if the destruction of the A-50 was an accident then Russia likely wouldn’t have restricted the activity of its second plane to fly over its territory, meaning the Ukrainians likely did score another big win.
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