Nikolai Patrushev

Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev (Никола́й Плато́нович Па́трушев; born 11 July 1951) is a Russian politician, security officer and former intelligence officer who has served as the secretary of the Security Council of Russia since 2008.

Born on 11 July 1951 in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Saint Petersburg, Russia), Patrushev is the son of a Soviet Navy officer who was also a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Patrushev studied at secondary school No. 211 in the same class with the future chairman of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party, Boris Gryzlov.

Patrushev has known Vladimir Putin since the 1970s, when the two men worked together in the Leningrad KGB.

Starting as a KGB security officer in the city of Leningrad, Patrushev eventually rose to become head of their local anti-smuggling and anti-corruption unit.

Patrushev graduated from Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute in 1974, and initially he worked as an engineer in the Institute's shipbuilding design bureau, but very soon afterwards, in 1975, he was recruited by the KGB.

He attended intelligence and security courses at the KGB School in Minsk, and later at the Higher School of the KGB in Moscow (the present-day FSB Academy).

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Patrushev continued to work in the security services and from 1992 to 1994 he was Minister of Security of the Republic of Karelia while in 1994 he was brought to Moscow as head of the Directorate of Internal Security of the Federal Counterintelligence Service (FSK).

In June 1995, Patrushev became deputy chief of the FSB's Organization and Inspection Department.

From May to August 1998, he was chief of the Control Directorate of the Presidential Staff; from August to October, he was Deputy Chief of the Presidential Staff; in October 1998, he was appointed deputy director of the FSB and chief of the Directorate for Economic Security.

He previously served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) from 1999 to 2008.

Belonging to the siloviki faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle, Patrushev is believed to be one of the closest advisors to Putin and a leading figure behind Russia's national security affairs.

In April 1999, he became FSB First Deputy Director.

On 9 August 1999, a decree by President Boris Yeltsin promoted him to Director, replacing his close friend Vladimir Putin.

The United Kingdom public inquiry into the 2006 poisoning of FSB whistleblower Alexander Litvinenko found that "the FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin."

Since May 2008, Patrushev has been Secretary of the Security Council of Russia, a consultative body of the President that works out his decisions on national security affairs.

He played a key role in the decisions to seize and then annex Crimea in 2014 and to invade Ukraine in 2022.

He is considered as very hawkish towards the West and the United States.

Patrushev is seen by some observers as one of the likeliest candidates for succeeding Putin.

Patrushev considers the 2014 Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine to have been started by the United States.

Patrushev believes that the United States "would much prefer that Russia did not exist at all."

Following the October 2016 coup d'état plot failure in Montenegro, Patrushev was cited by experts, such as Mark Galeotti, as the Kremlin's point man for the Balkans, which was interpreted as indicating Russia's increasingly hardline approach to the region as well as the latter's growing importance in Russia's foreign policy strategy.

Vashukevich claimed to have evidence linking Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

According to Anastasia Vashukevich, Patrushev, who had traveled to Thailand during late February 2018, was involved in her arrest in Thailand during late February 2018.

In June 2019, Patrushev said that Iran "has always been and remains our ally and partner".

In January 2021, he said that "the West needs" Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny "to destabilise the situation in Russia, for social upheaval, strikes and new Maidans."

Patrushev was a leading figure behind Russia's updated national security strategy, published in May 2021.

It states that Russia may use "forceful methods" to "thwart or avert unfriendly actions that threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Russian Federation."

On 19 September 2022, during his visit to China, he described the "strengthening of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation with Beijing as an unconditional priority of Russia's foreign policy."

He said that both China and Russia are calling for "a more just world order".

On 18 November 2022, he arrived in Tehran and met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and top security official Ali Shamkhani.

On 21 November 2022, he invited Vietnamese Minister of Public Security Tô Lâm to Moscow to strengthen security cooperation between Russia and Vietnam.

On 31 January 2023, he met Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Moscow.

In February 2023, he hosted CCP Politburo member Wang Yi in Moscow and prepared the ground for the visit of CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping to Russia in March 2023.

Patrushev said that "amid a campaign by the West to deter both Russia and China, it is particularly important to further deepen the Russian-Chinese coordination and cooperation in the international arena."

In February and March 2023, he visited Algeria, Venezuela and Cuba.

On 29 March 2023, Patrushev arrived in New Delhi and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In August 2021, during the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan, Patrushev told Izvestia newspaper that the United States had abandoned its Afghan allies, and that the reason was the incompetent work of the intelligence services of the United States, Britain and other NATO countries and the misplaced belief of the West in the correctness of its decisions.

He predicted that the United States would also abandon its allies in Ukraine:

In early November 2021, CIA Director William Burns and U.S. Ambassador to Russia John Sullivan met in Moscow with Patrushev and informed him that they knew about Russia's invasion plans.