Toxic Culture of Spying and Lavish Excess Revealed Inside Putin's Palace by Fleeing Guard

A former palace guard described a toxic culture where staff spy on each other to get ahead
The luxury of Putin's Crimean palace compound shocked the guard compared to ordinary Russian lives
The palace is a lavish "fantasy place" with arenas, pools, saunas behind 10-foot walls
Everyone working there is secret police, watching everything you say in case it's "used against you"
The guard tried resigning when the Ukraine war began but was forced to stay before fleeing Russia

businessinsider.com

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