Nikolai Patrushev
Nikolai Patrushev | |
---|---|
Secretary of the Security Council of Russia | |
Assumed office 12 May 2008 | |
Preceded by | Igor Ivanov |
Director of the Federal Security Service | |
In office 9 August 1999 – 12 May 2008 | |
Preceded by | Vladimir Putin |
Personal details | |
Born |
Leningrad, Soviet Union | 11 July 1951
Awards | |
Military service | |
Allegiance |
Soviet Union Russia |
Service/branch | Federal Security Service |
Years of service | 1975–present |
Rank | General of the Army |
Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev (Russian: Никола́й Плато́нович Па́трушев) (born 11 July 1951) is a Russian politician and security and intelligence officer. He served as Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which is the main successor organization to the Soviet KGB (excluding foreign intelligence), from 1999 to 2008, and he has been Secretary of the Security Council of Russia since 2008.[1][2]
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.[3] 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.[4]
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).[3] 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 - and on 9 August the same year a decree by President Boris Yeltsin promoted him to Director, replacing his close friend Vladimir Putin.
In December 2000, 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'."[5]
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."[6]
In January 2007, Patrushev joined the expedition of polar explorer Arthur Chilingarov, that flew on two helicopters to Antarctica and visited South Pole and Amundsen-Scott station.[7][8]
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.[1][2]
After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation Patrushev was placed on the European Union's list of sanctioned individuals in Russia.[9]
Political views
Patrushev believes that the United States of America "would much prefer that Russia did not exist at all.[10] 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."[10]
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.[11][12] Journalist Oleg Kashin (a harsh critic of the Putin administration) subsequently questioned the suitability of Patrushev as Secretary of the Security Council of Russia.[13]
According to Patrushev, the 2014 Ukrainian revolution was started by the United States.[10]
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."[14]
References
- 1 2 BackGround, People: PATRUSHEV, Nikolai Platonovich, Russia Profile, Moscow, Undated.Retrieved: 8 January 2013.
- 1 2 Russia trolls world by saying it cannot stop its citizens from fighting in Ukraine, Kyiv Post (25 June 2015)
- 1 2 http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=8866
- ↑ BackGround, People: PATRUSHEV, Nikolai Platonovich, Russia Profile, Moscow, Undated.Retrieved: 8 January 2013.
- ↑ Russia's New Nobility - The Rise of the Security Services in Putin's Kremlin, Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan (of Agentura.ru), Foreign Affairs, September/October 2010 and in the authors' The New Nobility - The Restoration of Russia's Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the KGB, Public Affairs, New York, September 2010.Retrieved: 8 March 2013.
- ↑ The Litvinenko Inquiry. Report into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, January 2016, p. 241-244.
- ↑ Patrushev lands at South Pole during Antarctic expedition Archived 29 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Charter Operations, Volga-Dnepr Airlines, Ulyanovsk, Undated.Retrieved: 8 March 2013. Archived 8 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "COUNCIL IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) No 810/2014 of 25 July 2014 implementing Regulation (EU) No 269/2014 concerning restrictive measures in respect of actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine". eur-lex.europa.eu. 2014-07-25. Retrieved 2016-08-29.
- 1 2 3 Patrushev, Nikolai; Kommersant, Elena Chernenko for. "Terrorism, Ukraine and the American threat: the view from Russia". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
- ↑ Mackey, Robert (2014-12-18). "Putin Cites Claim About U.S. Designs on Siberia Traced to Russian Mind Readers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
- ↑ Moscow, Oleg Kashin in. "How hallucinations of eccentric KGB psychic influence Russian policy". the Guardian. Retrieved 2015-07-17.
- ↑ Kashin, Oleg (15 July 2015). "How hallucinations of eccentric KGB psychic influence Russian policy". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
- ↑ Dmitri Donskoy, the Blessed Great Prince of Moscow, Icons of the 21st Century, Moscow, Undated. Retrieved: 8 March 2013.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nikolai Patrushev. |
- FSB biography (Russian)
- Security Council Biography (Russian)
- Patrushev Biography in English
Government offices | ||
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Preceded by Vladimir Putin |
Head of the Internal Security Department of FSB 1994 – 31 May 1998 |
Succeeded by Viktor Ivanov |
Preceded by Vladimir Putin |
Chief of the Control Directorate of the Russian presidential administration 31 May 1998 – October 1998 |
Succeeded by Yevgeny Lisov |
Preceded by Vladimir Putin |
Director of FSB 9 August 1999 – 12 May 2008 |
Succeeded by Alexander Bortnikov |
Preceded by Valentin Sobolev (acting) |
Secretary of Security Council of Russia 12 May 2008–present |
Incumbent |