Russian President Vladimir Putin in a photo from February 8, 2023.
Moscow – Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has regularly used an armored train for his travels. Citing an unnamed acquaintance of Putin's, the Russian investigative portal Dosje, founded by Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, wrote about it. This mode of transportation allows Putin to keep his travels a secret, the portal reports. While tracking the flights of the presidential squadron is enabled by various tools, there are no such options in the case of passenger trains.
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At first glance, the train on which Putin is traveling does not differ much from ordinary sets of Russian railways. Like other trains, it is gray with a red stripe. But the wagons used by Putin are armored. The train is said to have priority on the tracks and timetables are adapted to it. According to the website, the set includes Putin's car with a bedroom and study, an escort car and a car for classified communications. According to the investigative portal, the value of the train exceeds one billion rubles (300 million crowns).
“The train can leave spontaneously, without announcement. After the start of the war, at the turn of February and March, (Putin) began to use the train very often, especially when traveling to his residence in Valday (about 400 kilometers northwest of Moscow),” his unnamed source told the portal.
The leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, is also traveling on the armored train for security reasons. His father Kim Jong-il already chose the same mode of transport.
