A Pickup Truck Equipped With A Machine Gun Began Guarding Putin

• 2.09.2026, 16:30

The paranoia is growing.

During Vladimir Putin’s trip to Vladivostok to attend the Eastern Economic Forum, a pickup truck equipped with an anti-aircraft machine gun was spotted in his motorcade. Footage of the presidential motorcade near the airport was published by the local public group Svodka-25. In addition, military personnel and military equipment were deployed along the motorcade’s route. Local residents complained in online chat rooms about traffic jams caused by road closures.

In Vladivostok, Putin also used a closed staircase with an arched railing for the second time, as noted by “Sibir. Realii. This type of structure was first spotted on August 31 during the president’s trip to Bishkek for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. When Putin visited Kazakhstan in May, Novosibirsk in August, and India last December, he used a standard open boarding ramp. Military expert David Sharp attributed the change to heightened security measures. According to him, if the glass surrounding the staircase is bulletproof, it will be able to protect Putin in a vulnerable position—the stretch between the plane and the ground—until his security detail reaches him.

In early May, sources told the Financial Times that Putin’s security detail had been significantly reinforced in recent months. According to the newspaper’s sources, he began spending more time in underground bunkers due to growing fears for his life in connection with a possible assassination attempt or coup d’état. That same month, an armored vehicle with a machine gunner’s station and a vehicle equipped with an electronic warfare system were spotted in Putin’s motorcade for the first time, while a helicopter monitored the airspace.

Putin’s obsessive concern for secrecy and his own safety reached new heights when Ukrainian Armed Forces drones began penetrating deeper and deeper into Russian territory and launching intensive attacks on Moscow, The New York Times reported on August 12. A source close to the Kremlin told the publication that, in order to mislead potential attackers, presidential motorcades began traveling through the capital without Putin himself, to conceal his actual whereabouts.