CNN exclusive,
the lifting
the veil on Vladimir
Putin's secret train.
CNN's Matthew Chance did the reporting
joins us now from London.
Matthew, this is really fascinating.
What have you learned
Yeah, well,
I mean, Anderson,
remarkably little is known
about Vladimir Putin's private life
or about how he travels around his vast
country, which makes this
incredible trove
of photographs and documents
that was gathered
by the Dossier Center,
which is a Russian investigative group
and shared with CNN
all the more fascinating
with the revelations
it brings out about that train
and about how Vladimir Putin is treated
behind closed doors.
A rare glimpse
inside Putin's secret train
with leaked documents showing to CNN.
This is the pages discovered
revealing how the Kremlin leader
travels amid increasingly tight security
and luxury is surrounded by enemies
and he
psychologically he wants to be protected
from outside.
Train number one,
as it's dubbed in Russia, seems ordinary.
It's heavily armored carriages,
purposely disguised
with regular Russian railways, paintwork
and grime.
The ministry's official is state
media was once allowed inside
recording President Putin
meeting transport officials
in a sumptuous boardroom.
The train's other 20 or so carriages.
Some updated as recently as last year,
have remained a closely guarded secret
until nine
of these.
Each on service is a Russian company
that builds
what it calls elite wagons
for its clients
specializing in luxury designs.
For private and state corporations.
Of course, the Kremlin,
among a trove of documents,
including blueprints, letters and images
obtained exclusively
by the Russian Investigative
Dossier Center and shared with CNN,
is one from Zircon Service
dated August 2018,
notifying the Kremlin of a test run
for what it calls the sports health wagon
that's been ordered.
Accompanying photos show
what the Dossier Center says
is Putin's private gym on board the train
as recently as last year.
The Kremlin was looking to upgrade
the gym
with American equipment
to replace the Italian machines
originally installed
The former
member of Putin's
Personal Protection Service,
who says he fitted the train's
secure communications equipment
before defecting from Russia,
told the dossier center
the Kremlin leader started
traveling by train
more regularly
in the build
up to the invasion of Ukraine last year.
At the
worst,
easier ways of
emboldening more of them, you get them,
you're not serious.
And then you were taken with Putin
promised on them.
I just thought
at the moment that we are
still with the prime minister and that
but this aggression
for the Russian president
doesn't mean discomfort.
Leaked plans for the train
also show a luxurious spa on board
including a Turkish steam bath.
And according to the Dossier Center,
a fully equipped cosmetology
suite with a massage table
and high end beauty equipment
Now, the
Kremlin disputes the
Dossier Center's findings,
telling CNN that President Putin
neither owns nor uses a railway car
like the one described.
But in the aftermath
of a recent armed rebellion here
in Russia
in which Putin's authority
was threatened,
the focus on his isolates that exists
is higher than ever.
And the idea of Putin being pampered
as he travels incognito by armored train
underlines how stray Angela Cloistered,
the Kremlin leader, has become
even paranoid and besieged,
according to his former speechwriter.
Why is it,
do you think, that Vladimir Putin
and the Kremlin
has spent such large
sums of money
planning and constructing this armored
presidential train?
Is losing the working world in politics,
winning popularity
is getting more
and more enemies,
committing more and more crimes.
We cannot build political walls
if we want to build the walls of concrete
armor.
The physical defense
There are signs.
That's an image
the Kremlin knows it should shake.
In recent weeks
have seen Putin more publicly engaged
than he has been for years.
But in his increasingly hostile world,
the security
and luxury of train
no one may be sanctuary.
Indeed,
Matthew, I mean, is he,
you think, more concerned
about threats
from outside Russia
or from inside Russia itself?
I think it's almost certainly
from from inside Russia
that that seems to be
what most observers would would
would have said is true about Putin.
Remember, the critics
his critics have been jailed,
poisoned, imprisoned,
opposition has been neutralized.
And, of course,
Putin's absolutely right to be concerned
about the threat from within his country.
Just a couple of weeks ago,
there was an armed uprising, of course,
in Russia.
And I suppose
the ironic
thing is that the more cloistered
the Russian president
becomes, the more cut off
he is from the rest of the country,
the greater those threats become so
is an increasingly difficult
and an increasingly difficult
situation Anderson.
Matthew Chance, I appreciate that.