Nikolai Patrushev

Nikolai Patrushev in January 2008.

Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev (Russian: Никола́й Плато́нович Па́трушев) (born 11 July 1951) is a Russian political and security figure. He was Director of the Russian FSB, the successor organization to the KGB, from 1999 to 2008, and he has been Secretary of the Security Council of Russia since 2008.[1]

Career

Patrushev was born in Leningrad and graduated from Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute in 1974, where he worked as an engineer at his department. He joined the KGB in 1975.[2]

KGB

In 1974—1975 he attended the Higher Courses of the KGB with the USSR Council of Ministers in Minsk.

In 1975 he began to work at the counter-intelligence section of the KGB regional directorate for the Leningrad region; ended up being chief of the service for combatting contraband and corruption.

Upon finishing a year-long refresher courses at the Higher School of the KGB (now the FSB Academy), in June 1992, he was appointed Minister of State Security of Karelia which post he held until 1994.

FSK/FSB

In 1994, under Sergei Stepashin as Director of the FSK, he was appointed chief of the FSK Directorate of Internal Security.

After Stepashin's resignation on 30 June 1995, Patrushev got a senior post of deputy chief of the FSB's Organisation 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 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'."[3]

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 - see list below.

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.[4][5]

Honours and awards

State awards
Russian regions
Foreign Awards
Religious Awards

References

External links

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Government offices
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