Putin moved to an armored train

Russian President Vladimir Putin is increasingly using an armored train for long-distance travel to his residences. In the fall of 2021, when the Russian army began to actively prepare for an invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin started using an armored train. After the outbreak of the war, he uses it more and more often – especially to drive to his beloved residence in Valdai. It is reported by Railway Supply magazine with reference to the UP.

Putin began to prefer the armored train for security reasons. Unlike airplanes, trains are more difficult to track because there are no services for tracking passenger trains in real time. Also, the two residences of the president of the aggressor country, where he visits, are located on the Black Sea coast, where flights are limited due to the war.

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The armored train has a car with a bedroom and a study, a car for accompanying personnel and a car for special communications. Outwardly, an armored train looks like a regular train, only instead of four axles it has six, instead of one locomotive – several, and special equipment is placed on the roof.

The journalists found out that the special train that matches the description belongs to the Grand Service Express company, which was owned by an offshore company associated with an associate of the President of the Russian Federation, Yuri Kovalchuk, and businessman Mikhail Rabinovich, who is said to be a good friend of Kovalchuk.

Putin was photographed in an armored train only once – in 2012, before it was repaired. Photos of the train from the outside have never been officially released.

The journalists also calculated the approximate cost of the armored train. According to their estimates, it may cost a little more than 1 billion Russian rubles.

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