Nikolai Patrushev

Early life and career in the Soviet KGB

Born in 1951 in Leningrad (today Saint Petersburg), Patrushev is the son of a Soviet Navy officer who was also a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He 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). Subsequently, he was a KGB security officer in the city of Leningrad, and eventually rose to become head of the anti-smuggling and anti-corruption unit of the local KGB.

FSK and FSB career

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 FSK.

In June 1995, Patrushev became deputy chief of the FSB's Organization and Inspection Department. In May – August 1998 he was chief of the Control Directorate of the Presidential Staff; in August – 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. In April 1999, he became FSB First Deputy Director. On 9 August the same year 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."

Security Council of Russia

Since 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.

After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation Patrushev was placed on the European Union's list of sanctioned individuals in Russia.

Political views

Patrushev said on the anniversary of the founding of the Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka, that his FSB colleagues did not "work for the money... They are, if you like, our new 'nobility'."

Patrushev believes that the United States of America "would much prefer that Russia did not exist at all. He was quoted as saying. "Because we possess great [natural] resources. The Americans believe that we control them illegally and undeservedly because, in their view, we do not use them as they ought to be used."

Patrushev also referenced "Madeleine Albright’s claim 'that neither the Far East nor Siberia belong to Russia.'" According to the New York Times, there is no official record of Albright having made such a remark. Instead, it can be traced back to a psychic employed by the FSB who claimed to have read the thoughts in Albright's mind while in a state of trance.

According to Patrushev, the 2014 Ukrainian revolution was started by the United States.

Honours and awards

Patrushev, a general in Russia's Army and a PhD in Law, had been received a number of national awards, including Hero of the Russian Federation:

State awards

• Hero of the Russian Federation
• Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st class (2006), 2nd class, 3rd class and 4th class
• Order of Courage
• Order of Military Merit
• Order of Naval Merit
• Order of Honour
• Jubilee Medal "300 Years of the Russian Navy"
• Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow"
• Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
• Medal Anatoly Koni
• Medal for Strengthening Military Cooperation (Defence)
• Medal for Strengthening Military Cooperation (Defence)
• Medal for Strengthening Military Cooperation (Defence)
• Medal "Diligence in carrying out engineering tasks" (Defence)
• Medal for distinction in military service (MOD), 1st class
• Meritorious Service, 2nd class

Russian regions

• Medal "For Services to the Stavropol Territory" (Stavropol Territory, June 2003)
• Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Karelia

Foreign awards

• Order of the Cross, 1st class (Armenia, 2003)
• Medal of Honour (Belarus, 2001)
• Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 3rd class (Ukraine, 23 May 2001) - for his contribution in the development of cooperation between the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation and the Security Service of Ukraine in the fight against international terrorism, organized crime and drug trafficking

Religious awards

• Order of St Dmitri Donskoy, the Blessed Great Prince of Moscow, 1st Class (Russian Orthodox Church, 2005) - The saint allegedly wards off "all kinds of threats for the sake of multiplying the faith and piety of the people, strengthening families and protecting from bodily extinction and spiritual death."