Putin's luxury armored train is fitted with a beauty room anti-aging machines and a gym report says. Take a look inside.
Dossier Center
- A report published by the Dossier Center reveals what the inside of Putin's luxury train looks like.
- The train, which cost at least 6.8 billion rubles to make, is equipped with a cinema, spa, and gym.
- It also has a beauty room that includes anti-aging machines, the report said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's luxury armored train is fitted with a beauty room, anti-aging machines, and a gym, according to a new report.
Several photos and blueprints of the train were published in a joint investigation by the Dossier Center, CNN, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, and Norddeutscher Rundfunk on Wednesday.
The media outlets cited intelligence documents, interviews with former officials, and at least 25,500 internal documents belonging to Zircon Service, the company that has been servicing the train for decades.
The train cost taxpayers at least 6.8 billion rubles ($74 million), the report said, adding that upkeep and maintenance costs around 1.45 billion rubles ($15.8 million) a year.
The train is made up of 22 carriages, though not all of them are always used at the same time, the investigation found.
Eight of them are technical carriages, which house communication centers, satellite equipment, and a diesel power station.
The other cars are fitted with restaurants, a cinema, and a lavish dining room as well as a Turkish hammam steam room and a beauty room, the report said.
The Dossier Center
The beauty room, which is sound-proof, has everything from "anti-aging machines" to "firming emulsion", and "cherry blossom" facial masks, per the reports. Also on board is equipment for life-saving emergencies, such as a ventilator and defibrillator, and a patient monitor.
Another car has been turned into a gym, which is equipped with a press bench, a hyperextension machine, and dumbbells weighing up to eight kilograms, the report said.
Putin's security team, the Presidential Security Service (SBP), also specifically requested that the gym includes exercise equipment for "training thigh muscles," the report added.
The Dossier Center
Rumors of Putin's supposed obsession with health and how he looks have long existed in Russia.
Reports of him having plastic surgery first surfaced in 2010 after he was spotted with a huge blue-and-yellow bruise around his eye during a meeting in Kyiv, The Guardian reported
The reports forced Putin's spokesperson to issue a denial, telling reporters at the time: "It's probably just how the light fell. The prime minister is tired," the outlet reported.
The Dossier Center
Putin also specifically requested a special communications system on his train, which allows him to watch television without interruption as it moves through tunnels, the latest investigation found.
It is always manned by dozens of employees who are expected to undergo quarantine before working on the train when Putin is present.
"People are always ready ... so that they are already 'clean' and can go with the president when he's onboard," Gleb Karakulov, the former captain of the Federal Guard Service — a group tasked with protecting Russia's highest-ranking officials — told the Dossier Center earlier this year.
This appears to be standard procedure for Putin, who started taking extreme measures to isolate himself during the COVID-19 pandemic — and apparently hasn't stopped.
A report published in June 2020 found that he built a special disinfection tunnel in his palace in Novo-Ogaryovo that all visitors had to pass through.
The Dossier Center
Putin is not only paranoid about his health, but also his security. The armored train runs on a secret railway network that includes parallel lines and stations near his residences around Russia. This was previously reported by the Russian investigative outlet Proekt.
But the latest investigation details just how well protected the train is, finding that everything from the walls, doors, and windows are bulletproof.
The Dossier Center
The Federal Guard Service's press department did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Karakulov previously told the Dossier Center that the train also has a secret timetable so that it can move around inconspicuously.
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