Nikolai Patrushev
Nikolai Patrushev | |
---|---|
Николай Патрушев | |
Director of the Federal Security Service | |
In office 9 August 1999 – 12 May 2008 | |
President | Boris Yeltsin Vladimir Putin |
Preceded by | Vladimir Putin |
Succeeded by | Alexander Bortnikov |
Personal details | |
Born | General of the Army | 11 July 1951
Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev (
Early life and education
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.[10]
Patrushev studied at
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).[10]
Patrushev has known Vladimir Putin since the 1970s, when the two men worked together in the Leningrad KGB.[14]
Career
KGB security officer (1975–1991)
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.[15]
FSK and FSB career (1992–1999)
After the
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. In April 1999, he became FSB First Deputy Director.
Director of FSB (1999–2008)
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."[16]
Security Council of Russia (2008–present)
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.[1][2]
Patrushev considers the 2014 Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine to have been started by the United States.[17]
Patrushev believes that the United States "would much prefer that Russia did not exist at all."[17]
Following the October 2016
According to
In June 2019, Patrushev said that Iran "has always been and remains our ally and partner".[24]
In January 2021, he said that "the West needs"
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."[26][27]
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."[28] He said that both China and Russia are calling for "a more just world order".[29]
On 18 November 2022, he arrived in Tehran and met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and top security official Ali Shamkhani.[30] On 21 November 2022, he invited Vietnamese Minister of Public Security Tô Lâm to Moscow to strengthen security cooperation between Russia and Vietnam.[31] On 31 January 2023, he met Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry in Moscow.[32]
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.[5] 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."[33]
In February and March 2023, he visited Algeria, Venezuela and Cuba.[34] On 29 March 2023, Patrushev arrived in New Delhi and met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.[35]
2022 invasion of Ukraine
In August 2021, during the
"...Kyiv is obsequiously serving the interests of its overseas patrons, striving to get into NATO. But was the ousted pro-American regime in Kabul saved by the fact that Afghanistan had the status of a principal U.S. ally outside NATO? (No). A similar situation awaits supporters of the American choice in Ukraine."[36]
In early November 2021, CIA Director
Sources say Putin's decision to invade Ukraine was influenced by a small group of war hawks around him,[41] including Patrushev and Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu.[42] According to Putin-regime expert Catherine Belton, it was "Patrushev who's always been the leading ideologue of using capitalism as a tool to undermine the West to buy off and corrupt officials and so on. And he's certainly very much painted the West as a hostile enemy of Russia and something which is kind of debauched and decrepit, and it's time to attack [Ukraine in 2022]."[43] According to sources close to the Kremlin, most of Putin's close advisers opposed the invasion, and even Patrushev advised Putin to give diplomacy another chance three days before the invasion, but Putin overruled them all.[44]
On 26 April 2022, after two months of war, Patrushev predicted that Ukraine would collapse and be broken into several states because of what he cast as a U.S. attempt to use Kyiv to undermine Russia. He repeated the "denazification" trope and claimed:
"Using their henchmen in Kyiv, the Americans, in an attempt to suppress Russia, decided to create an antipode of our country, cynically choosing Ukraine for this, trying to divide essentially a single people. The result of the policy of the West and the regime in Kyiv can only be the disintegration of Ukraine into several states."[45]
Patrushev claimed that "Ukraine, saturated with weapons, poses a threat to Russia".[46] He downplayed the sanctions against Russia and said that "Russia is reorienting itself away from the European market to the African, Asian and Latin American markets."[46]
In April 2022, he addressed the
In May 2022, he speculated that Poland "is already taking actions related to the seizure of western Ukrainian territories."[46] He claimed that the West "has already revived the shadow market for the purchase of human organs from the socially vulnerable segments of the Ukrainian population for clandestine transplant operations for European patients."[47]
On 17 August 2022, Patrushev met with Narendra Modi's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval to discuss measures to strengthen the strategic partnership across sectors including defense ties and energy security. Russia appreciated India's neutral position on Ukraine.[48]
In October 2022, Patrushev accused the United States and its allies of wanting to "fight to the last Ukrainian".[46] He said that Anglo-Saxons "are exploiting Ukraine as an instrument of struggle with our country ... The goal is to suppress Russia, retain their imaginary supremacy, keep their unipolar world, ensure themselves the opportunity to live at the expense of others.[46]
In November 2022, Patrushev accused the West of inciting Ukraine to attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and of assisting in the production of a "dirty bomb". He also accused the United States of wanting to recruit terrorists from Afghanistan and use them in the fight against Russia in Ukraine. He claimed that the West wants to destabilize the world to maintain its global dominance, saying that the "reckless policy of Washington, London, and their allies resulted in bloody adventures in the Balkans, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan and Ukraine, which have already claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people."[49]
In January 2023, he claimed that Russia was fighting NATO in Ukraine and that the West was trying to destroy Russia.[50]
In February 2023, during a meeting with CCP Politburo member Wang Yi in Moscow, Patrushev claimed that "the bloody events in Ukraine staged by the West" are just one example of the West's attempts to maintain its global dominance.[33]
In May 2023, Patrushev blamed the United States and Ukraine for the number of
On 15 September 2023, Patrushev claimed that Russia had identified and "neutralized" hundreds of foreign spies in recent years.[52]
In September 2023, he met the Chinese foreign minister in Moscow for the annual security talks.[53] On 10 October 2023, he arrived in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.[54]
On 22 December 2023, The Wall Street Journal cited sources within the Western and Russian intelligence agencies as saying that the Wagner Group plane crash was orchestrated by Patrushev.[55] The paper alleged that Patrushev presented to Putin a plan to assassinate Yevgeny Prigozhin in August 2023, which led to intelligence officials inserting a bomb under the wing of Prigozhin's plane during pre-departure safety checks.[56]
Sanctions
After the 2014 annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, Patrushev was placed on the European Union's list of sanctioned individuals in Russia.[57]
Sanctioned by the
In April 2018, the United States imposed sanctions on him and 23 other Russian nationals.[59][60]
Following the
Sanctioned by New Zealand in relation to the
Political views
Patrushev belongs to the
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»")[65][66] The term "new nobility" gained currency afterwards, as in the eponymous book The New Nobility.[67][68]
Ben Noble, Associate Professor of Russian Politics at University College London, describes Patrushev as "the most hawkish hawk, thinking the West has been out to get Russia for years".[69] He was quoted as saying, "The Americans believe that we control [our natural resources] illegally and undeservedly because, in their view, we do not use them as they ought to be used."[17] Patrushev has referenced "Madeleine Albright's claim 'that neither the Far East nor Siberia belong to Russia.'" According to the New York Times, this remark 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.[70][71] In June 2020, he said that a "shameful page in history for all NATO countries was and will forever remain the barbaric" NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.[46]
Patrushev believes in various conspiracy theories and often gives interviews to state-controlled media in Russia.[47] In April 2022, he said that Washington "tried to force Russia to give up sovereignty, self-consciousness, culture, an independent foreign and domestic policy."[46] He claimed that the West is seeking to reduce "the world's population in various ways," including creating "an empire of lies, involving the humiliation and destruction of Russia and other objectionable states."[47] In June 2022, he accused the United States, Britain, the EU and Japan of an "increasingly adventurous and aggressive policy" that "is based on a complete detachment from reality, the desire to construct their own imaginary world, which they will rule. Such an escape from reality is a real threat to all of humanity."[46] In his interview in an official government paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, he said that the Russo-Ukrainian War is only part of a wider war with NATO and the "collective West".[5] He warned that Russia "has modern, unique weapons capable of destroying any adversary, including the United States, in the event of a threat to its existence."[5]
According to Russian expert at the Carnegie Center, Alexander Sorkin, Patrushev and FSB director Alexander Bortnikov were formed by the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union and "believe that a bloc confrontation with the West is a reasonable and correct world order. And in order to return to a predictable and manageable confrontation, it is necessary to divide the zones of influence through war, even with the risk of a clash with NATO. According to Patrushev and Bortnikov, Ukraine should be in the Russian zone of influence".[41]
Personal life
His eldest son, Dmitry, is a banker and the Minister of Agriculture of Russia since 18 May 2018.[72] His younger son, Andrey, graduated in 2003 from the FSB Academy where he studied law with his classmate Pavel Fradkov, who is the son of Mikhail Fradkov, and has worked in leadership roles at Gazprom Neft.[73][74][75]
In January 2007, Nikolai Patrushev and his brother, Viktor Platonovich Patrushev (
Honours and awards
- Hero of the Russian Federation (2000)[78]
- 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."[79]
See also
Notes
- ^ Other siloviki close to Patrushev include Igor Sechin, Alexander Bortnikov, and Viktor Ivanov.[63]
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)
- ^ "Ukraine conflict: Who's in Putin's inner circle and running the war?". BBC News. 2 March 2022. Retrieved 4 March 2022.
- ^ Troianovski, Anton (30 January 2022). "The Hard-Line Russian Advisers Who Have Putin's Ear". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 March 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f Galeotti, Mark (28 March 2023). "Nikolai Patrushev, the man dripping poison into Putin's ear". The Spectator.
- ^ Kovačević, Filip (10 March 2022). "The Second Most Powerful Man In Russia". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved 8 December 2023.
- ^ "After Putin: 12 people ready to ruin Russia next". POLITICO. 29 September 2022. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
- ^ Weiss, Michael (August 2023). "The Death of Yevgeny Prigozhin: A Foreign Office Special Episode". Foreign Office with Michael Weiss.
- ^ Reporter, Isabel van Brugen (2 November 2023). "Who is Nikolai Patrushev? Putin loyalist touted as his successor". Newsweek. Retrieved 4 December 2023.
- ^ a b "Патрушев Николай Платонович".
- ^ Владимир Прибыловский. Патрушев Николай Платонович Archived 2018-12-04 at the Wayback Machine. — Антикомпромат
- ^ Патрушев Николай Платонович Archived 2016-09-28 at the Wayback Machine. — Официальный сайт ФСБ РФ (www.fsb.ru)
- ^ BackGround, People: PATRUSHEV, Nikolai Platonovich, Russia Profile, Moscow, Undated Archived 7 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine.Retrieved: 8 January 2013.
- ^ "Twelve Who Have Putin's Ear". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL). 15 October 2007.
- ^ "Биография :: Федеральная Служба Безопасности". www.fsb.ru. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
- ^ The Litvinenko Inquiry. Report into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, January 2016, p. 241–244.
- ^ a b c Patrushev, Nikolai; Kommersant, Elena Chernenko for (15 July 2015). "Terrorism, Ukraine and the American threat: the view from Russia". the Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ Amos, Howard (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.
- ^ Burrows, Emma (1 March 2018). "Russian model in Thai jail promises to spill Trump-Russia secrets". CNN. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
- ^ Kalmbacher, Colin (22 January 2019). "Model Who Claimed to Have Dirt on Paul Manafort-Linked Russian Billionaire Just Got Out of Jail". lawandcrime.com. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
- ^ Hunter, Brad (27 January 2019). "A sex guru, party girls, oligarchs, Putin and Trump". Toronto Sun. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
- ^ "Russia Says U.S.-Iran 'War' Possible, But 'We Will Convince' Them to Talk". Newsweek. 26 June 2019.
- ^ "Vladimir Putin: The security men, officials, and friends who are in Russian president's inner circle". Sky News. 28 February 2022.
- ^ "Russia's security strategy envisages 'forceful methods'". ABC News. 31 May 2021.
- ^ "Putin's inner circle: Who has the Russian president's ear on the war in Ukraine?". Deutsche Welle. 11 March 2022.
- ^ "Russia Seeks Closer Security Ties With China as Key Goal". The Diplomat. 19 September 2022.
- ^ "China and Russia want fair world order, won't bend to 'external factors', Russian security chief says". South China Morning Post. 19 September 2022.
- ^ "Russia's security chief discusses Ukraine, trade on visit to Iran". Al Jazeera. 9 November 2022.
- ^ "Vietnam and Russia, Belarus strengthen cooperation on security". Ministry of Public Security. 25 November 2022.
- ^ "FM Shoukry reiterates calls for political solution to Russian-Ukrainian crisis". Al-Ahram. 31 January 2023.
- ^ a b "Kremlin official urges deeper ties with China to resist West". AP News. 21 February 2023.
- Swissinfo. Reuters. 2 March 2023.
- ^ "Putin ally meets India's Modi in New Delhi". Reuters. 29 March 2023.
- ^ "Senior Russian security official questions U.S. commitment to Ukraine after Afghan exit". Reuters. 19 August 2021.
- ^ "What Russia Got Wrong". Foreign Affairs. 8 February 2023.
- ^ Schwirtz, Michael; Troianovski, Anton; Al-Hlou, Yousur; Froliak, Masha; Entous, Adam; Gibbons-Neff, Thomas (17 December 2022). "Putin's War: The Inside Story of a Catastrophe". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 17 December 2022.
- ^ Parfitt, Tom; Brown, Larissa (30 January 2022). "Even Ukraine doesn't believe the West's claim that war is coming, says Russia". The Times. Archived from the original on 17 February 2022.
- ^ "U.S. and U.K. Work on Russian Sanctions Revamp: Ukraine Update". Bloomberg. 30 January 2022.
- ^ a b "A look at the trio who convinced Putin to invade". Yahoo News. 9 January 2023.
- ^ "Kremlin Insiders Alarmed Over Growing Toll of Putin's War in Ukraine". Bloomberg. 20 March 2022.
- ^ Isikoff, Michael (27 February 2022). "Putin may have 'lost touch with reality,' expert says". Yahoo! News. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
- ^ "How Putin blundered into Ukraine — then doubled down". Financial Times. 23 February 2023.
- ^ "Putin ally says Ukraine heading for collapse into several states". Reuters. 26 April 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "The World According to Patrushev". Russia Matters. Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. 7 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d "As one of Vladimir Putin's closest advisers on Ukraine, Nicolai Patrushev spreads disinformation and outlandish conspiracy theories". The Conversation. 7 June 2022.
- ^ "NSA Ajit Doval meets Patrushev in Moscow to discuss steps to boost strategic ties". The Economic Times. 18 August 2022.
- ^ "Russia: West stepping up efforts to destabilize other countries". Anadolu Agency. 3 November 2022.
- ^ "Russia is now fighting NATO in Ukraine, top Putin ally says". Reuters. 10 January 2023.
- ^ "Putin ally accuses U.S. of involvement in deadly attacks inside Russia". Reuters. 19 May 2023.
- ^ "Russia has 'neutralised' hundreds of foreign intelligence agents, top security official says". Reuters. 15 September 2023.
- ^ "China top diplomat heads to Russia for 4-day talks". Deutsche Welle. 18 September 2023.
- ^ "Russia's top security official visits Azerbaijan, meets president". Reuters. 10 October 2023.
- ^ "Prigozhin Killing Ordered by Putin's Security Council Chief – WSJ". The Moscow Times. 22 December 2023.
- ^ "Prigozhin Killing Ordered by Putin's Security Council Chief – WSJ". The Moscow Times. 22 December 2023.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "CONSOLIDATED LIST OF FINANCIAL SANCTIONS TARGETS IN THE UK" (PDF). Retrieved 16 April 2023.
- ^ "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.
- ^ US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). "Russia-related Designations; Belarus Designations; Issuance of Russia-related Directive 2 and 3; Issuance of Russia-related and Belarus General Licenses; Publication of new and updated Frequently Asked Questions". U.S. Department of the Treasury. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- ^ "Russia Sanctions Regulations 2022". Retrieved 11 February 2023.
- ^ a b Harding, Luke (21 December 2007). "Putin, the Kremlin power struggle and the $40bn fortune". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
- ^ Galeotti, Mark (14 June 2020). "In Moscow's Shadows". Buzzsprout.
- ^ 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.
- NEWSru.com6 November 2007.
- ^ "The New Nobility". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 9 December 2018.
- ^ Kirby, Paul (3 March 2022). "Ukraine conflict: Who's in Putin's inner circle and running the war?". BBC News. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- ^ Moscow, Oleg Kashin in (15 July 2015). "How hallucinations of eccentric KGB psychic influence Russian policy". the Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2015.
- RBK (in Russian). Archived from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2018.)
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ "Here are the Russian oligarchs targeted in Biden's sanctions". NBC News. 26 February 2022. Retrieved 12 March 2022.
- ^ Джорджевич, Александра (Djordjevic, Alexandra); Прокушев, Владимир (Prokushev, Vladimir) (17 November 2020). "Наследные принципы: Как российская элита передает страну в руки своих детей" [Legacy principles: How the Russian elite is handing the country over to their children]. Novaya Gazeta #127 November 18, 2020 (in Russian). Retrieved 26 March 2022.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Бондаренко, Мария (Bondarenko, Maria); Подобедова, Людмила (Podobedova, Lyudmila) (6 April 2015). "Сын Патрушева,однокурсник Фрадкова: В «Газпром нефти» новый начальник" [Patrushev's son, Fradkov's classmate: Gazprom Neft has a new boss]. RBC (in Russian). Archived from the original on 28 November 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2022.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Победит ли Россия в "информационной войне" с Эстонией?: "Подвиг их неизвестен"" [Will Russia win the "information war" with Estonia?: "Their feat is unknown"]. BBC (in Russian). 3 May 2007. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
- ^ Николаева, Анна (Nikolayeva, Anna) (3 May 2007). "Подвиг их неизвестен: Президент наградил родственников директора ФСБ" [Their feat is unknown: President awarded relatives to FSB director]. FLB (Freelance Bureau) (in Russian). Retrieved 11 February 2020 – via Vedomosti.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Герои страны
- ^ Dmitri Donskoy, the Blessed Great Prince of Moscow, Icons of the 21st Century, Moscow, Undated. Retrieved: 8 March 2013.
External links
- FSB biography (in Russian)
- Security Council Biography (in Russian)
- Patrushev Biography in English