Due to the special train on the evening of February 17, traffic stopped on one of the busiest branches of the railway junction of the capital of Russia – Moscow-Tverskaya. Trains coming from the Leningradsky railway station stopped at 18.15 in the section from the Mosilmash station on all tracks.
On the section from Moscow to Mosilmash, a traffic jam arose from trains that had to be stopped to allow the special warehouse to pass, writes moscowtimes.ru.
Traffic resumed around 6:50 p.m. The Moscow-Tver suburban passenger company confirmed that the trains on the Leningrad direction of the Oktyabrskaya railway were late. The reason is the passage of a special train.
Sergei Markov, a political scientist close to the Kremlin and a former “ideologist” of United Russia, notes that he allegedly decided to try out the special train for a trip to his residence in Valdai. There he must complete the preparation of a message to the Federal Assembly, which is scheduled for February 21.
Transport workers seem unhappy that Putin’s armored train is disrupting the schedule and leaking information about its movement, Markov said.
The fact that Putin actively uses the armored train for trips within the country was reported by the Dossier Center, citing a person from the president’s inner circle, as well as a source close to his administration.
An armored train with a bedroom and an office was designed back in 2014-2015, but it did not arouse much interest from Putin until the Kremlin began to prepare for an invasion of Ukraine. The head of Russia began to make regular trips by armored train in the second half of 2021, when his army began to be drawn to the Ukrainian borders.
Putin’s desire to use an armored train is dictated by the interests of secrecy: the movement of an aircraft can be tracked using numerous open Internet services, but there is no similar mechanism for trains.
The schedule of Russian Railways has to be adjusted specifically for Putin, so that the train goes at maximum speed and without stops.
The departure of the train can be spontaneous, unannounced, – says the source of “Dossier”. – After the start of the war, in February-March, he [путін] began to use the train very actively, especially to get to his residence in Valdai.
Source: Racurs
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