The man who can replace Putin: what do we know about Nikolai Patrushev

By the materials of TSN

According to rumors, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev is now the closest to Putin, the dictator trusts him more than anyone else.

Sources close to the top of the Russian leadership claim that Nikolai Patrushev now has the greatest influence on Vladimir Putin from all his entourage. Telegram channel Generall SVR claims that Patrushev's main instrument of influence is fear. The secretary of the Russian Security Council constantly scares Putin with possible conspiracies and attempts on his life.

As the channel writes, as recently as yesterday, Patrushev had an almost two-hour conversation with Putin, with whom he was very pleased. Allegedly, Putin did not place personal responsibility on Patrushev for problems with the implementation of military plans. According to the channel, Putin made it clear to Patrushev that he considers him almost the only truly confidant and friend in the system of power.

The president also promised that in the event of a sharp deterioration in his, Putin's, health, the actual control of the country would pass - temporarily - to Patrushev.

"Putin's doctors insisted on the need for him to undergo a surgical operation in the near future, and although Putin did not give his consent in principle and the date of the operation was not agreed, he hurried to explain himself and get Patrushev's response and promises," the channel reported.

Also, General SVR informants insist that Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, as a possible "chargé d'affaires" in the affairs of the president and the head of the country, is the worst option, even a temporary one, of all possible "successors".

In this regard, we want to introduce you to such an important figure in Russian palace games closer.

Nikolai Patrushev, now 71 years old, two years older than Putin, was also born in Leningrad, his father was a member of the crew of the destroyer "Grozyashchiy" of the Baltic Fleet, a party organizer of the crew and deputy commander of the destroyer "Active" for political affairs. Interestingly, Patrushev studied in the same class as the future chairman of the Supreme Council of the United Russia party, Boris Gryzlov, who was later appointed the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Federation in the Contact Group to resolve the situation in eastern Ukraine. After graduating from the shipbuilding institute, he entered the higher courses of the KGB under the Council of Ministers of the USSR in Minsk.

He worked for the KGB in Leningrad. According to the memoirs of Putin’s fellow student, ex-KGB intelligence officer Yuri Shvets:

“Patrushev, like Putin, worked in the Leningrad department of the KGB, was a specialist in organizing hunting and fishing for the leadership. Such a “huntsman” was in almost every department of the KGB, he took the authorities out into the countryside, set the table.”

Then, in 1990, Nikolai Patrushev was transferred from Leningrad to Karelia. In 1994, Patrushev was transferred to Moscow to the FSB. There is a version that this transfer was since Patrushev was a witness in the case of the theft and smuggling of expensive Karelian birch. Still, during the investigation, Patrushev's complicity in the crime was allegedly proven.

In the 2000s, he headed the Russian anti-terrorist committee, then led the headquarters for managing counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus region. In 2008, he was appointed Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.

Like all high-ranking Russian officials, Patrushev lives luxuriously. According to the Russian press, to buy all the real estate owned by the family (this is only officially declared), based on official income, the Patrushevs would have to work for 60 years.

Patrushev is married and has two sons. Both, as is customary among the Russian elite, are attached.

The eldest son Dmitry has been the Minister of Agriculture of Russia since 2018. Prior to that, he managed to work as a vice president of VTB Bank. In May 2012, at the age of 34, he was appointed to the post of Chairman of the Board of the 4th largest bank in Russia - Rosselkhozbank, is a member of the Board of Directors of PJSC Gazprom. Brilliant career, isn't it?

The youngest son Andrei followed in his father's footsteps - he graduated from the Academy of the FSB, worked in the FSB, and then was appointed adviser to the director of Rosneft Igor Sechin.

One of the main dark spots on Patrushev's reputation as director of the FSB, assuming that an FSB officer can have any reputation, is the operation's failure to free the hostages at the musical Nord-Ost. Despite the frankly poorly conducted operation, he then retained his position as director of the FSB.

Although, in fact, there are countless dark spots in Patrushev's track record. Here is a small list of what happened in Russia when Patrushev was director of the FSB from 1999 to 2008:

• explosions of residential buildings throughout the country, which, perhaps, were organized by the FSB itself, the puncture of the same operation in Ryazan (the famous Ryazan sugar), 1999 - the year Patrushev came to the post of head of the FSB;
• explosions in the Moscow metro between the Avtozavodskaya and Paveletskaya stations, 2004;
• explosion at the Rizhskaya metro station, 2004;
• double terrorist attack, simultaneously blowing up two planes taking off from Moscow, one of them was heading to Volgograd, and the other to Sochi, 2004;
• tragedy in Beslan, 2004;
• the terrorist attack on the Cherkizovsky market in Moscow, 2006;
• an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, his main political enemy in Montenegro, in 2016, Patrushev led the operation already in the role of Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation.

Also, Patrushev is the ideologist of the concept, according to which the FSB officers are the "new nobility." This idea was subsequently abandoned, and Patrushev left the FSB to lead the Security Council.

It is believed that Patrushev embodies everything conceived by Putin, and this is what serves as such a close link between the two criminals. Putin inspires almost all high-profile political assassinations, and then thought out and carried out by Patrushev, by the hands of his subordinates. The whole world sees the results of Nikolai Patrushev's "brilliant work".

Many, and perhaps Putin himself, see Patrushev as a likely successor. But, as you can see, in this case, there can be no optimistic forecast for Ukraine and the whole world.