Nikolai Patrushev
Nikolai Patrushev | |
---|---|
Secretary of the Security Council of Russia | |
Assumed office 12 May 2008 | |
Preceded by | Valentin Sobolev (acting) |
Director of the Federal Security Service | |
In office 9 August 1999 – 12 May 2008 | |
Preceded by | Vladimir Putin |
Succeeded by | Alexander Bortnikov |
Personal details | |
Born | Leningrad, Soviet Union | 11 July 1951
Children | Dmitry, Andrey |
Awards | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Soviet Union Russia |
Branch/service | Federal Security Service |
Years of service | 1975–present |
Rank | General of the Army |
Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev (Russian: Никола́й Плато́нович Па́трушев, tr. Nikolay Platonovich Patrushev) (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. 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."[5]
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.[6]
In April 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on him and 23 other Russian nationals.[7][8]
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.[9][10][11]
Political views
In December 2000, on the anniversary of the founding of the Bolshevik secret police, the Cheka, an interview with him was published in a Russian national daily. In defence of the emerging trend of co-opting officers in the security and intelligence apparatus into high government posts Patrushev noted that his FSB colleagues did not "work for money [...] [they] are, if you will, modern 'neo-nobility'." ("современные «неодворяне»")[12][13] The term "new nobility" gained currency afterwards.[14].
Patrushev believes that the United States of America "would much prefer that Russia did not exist at all.[15] 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."[15]
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.[16][17]
According to Patrushev, the 2014 Ukrainian revolution was started by the United States.[15]
Family
Honours and 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."[20]
Other
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.[citation needed]
References
- ^ a b BackGround, People: PATRUSHEV, Nikolai Platonovich, Russia Profile, Moscow, Undated Archived 7 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine.Retrieved: 8 January 2013.
- ^ a b Russia trolls world by saying it cannot stop its citizens from fighting in Ukraine, Kyiv Post (25 June 2015)
- ^ a b http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=8866
- ^ BackGround, People: PATRUSHEV, Nikolai Platonovich, Russia Profile, Moscow, Undated Archived 7 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine.Retrieved: 8 January 2013.
- ^ The Litvinenko Inquiry. Report into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, January 2016, p. 241-244.
- ^ "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. 25 July 2014. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- ^ "Ukraine-/Russia-related Designations and Identification Update". United States Department of the Treasury. 6 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
- ^ "США ввели санкции против семи российских олигархов и 17 чиновников из «кремлевского списка»" [The US imposed sanctions against seven Russian oligarchs and 17 officials from the "Kremlin list"]. Meduza (in Russian). 6 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
- ^ Howard Amos (21 June 2017). "Vladimir Putin's man in the Balkans: The involvement of Nikolai Patrushev, a former spy and Putin confidante, indicates a more hardline Russian approach to the region". Politico.
- ^ Mark Galeotti (4 April 2018). "Do the Western Balkans face a coming Russian storm?". European Council on Foreign Relations.
- ^ "Russia's Comeback in the Balkans - New Eastern Europe". New Eastern Europe. 13 August 2018.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Интервью с Директором Федеральной службы безопасности России Н.Патрушевым Komsomolskaya Pravda, 20 December 2000.
- ^ В России уже почти 15 тысяч «новых дворян»: Ксения Собчак, Алексий II, Николай Патрушев NEWSru.com 6 November 2007.
- ^ a b c Patrushev, Nikolai; Kommersant, Elena Chernenko for. "Terrorism, Ukraine and the American threat: the view from Russia". the Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ Mackey, Robert (18 December 2014). "Putin Cites Claim About U.S. Designs on Siberia Traced to Russian Mind Readers". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ Moscow, Oleg Kashin in. "How hallucinations of eccentric KGB psychic influence Russian policy". the Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ "Дмитрий Патрушев возглавил Минсельхоз". RBK. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
- ^ "Правление компании". www.gazprom-neft.ru. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
- ^ Dmitri Donskoy, the Blessed Great Prince of Moscow, Icons of the 21st Century, Moscow, Undated. Retrieved: 8 March 2013.
External links
- 1951 births
- KGB officers
- Living people
- Heroes of the Russian Federation
- Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 1st class
- Recipients of the Order of Courage
- Recipients of the Order of Honour (Russia)
- People from Saint Petersburg
- People of the Chechen wars
- Russian politicians
- Soviet engineers
- 20th-century engineers
- Directors of the Federal Security Service