Nikolai Patrushev
Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev is a Russian politician, security officer and former intelligence officer who served as the secretary of the Security Council of Russia from 2008 to 2024. He previously served as the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) from 1999 to 2008. Belonging to the siloviki faction of president Vladimir Putin's inner circle, Patrushev is believed to be one of the closest advisors to Putin and a leading figure behind Russia's national security affairs. He played a key role in the decisions to seize and then annex Crimea in 2014 and to invade Ukraine in 2022.
Some of the key events about Nikolai Patrushev
- 1974Graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute with a degree in mechanical engineering
- 1975Began career in the KGB, starting in the Leningrad and Leningrad Oblast directorate
- 1992Appointed Minister of Security of the Republic of Karelia
- 1994Became deputy director of the Federal Counterintelligence Service
- 1998Appointed Deputy Director of the FSB (Federal Security Service)
- 1999Became Director of the FSB, succeeding Vladimir Putin
- 1999Accused of involvement in apartment bombings that killed 300 Russians, used to justify Second Chechen War
- 2006Allegedly ordered the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, a former FSB officer and critic of Putin
- 2008Appointed Secretary of the Security Council of Russia
- 2008Oversaw Russian military intervention in Georgia as Secretary of the Security Council
- 2009Elected as Chairman of the Commission of the Russian Federation on UNESCO Affairs
- 2014Played key role in Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine
- 2014Sanctioned by the US and EU for role in Ukraine crisis
- 2016Accused of orchestrating cyberattacks on US Democratic Party during presidential election
- 2018Awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation
- 2018Implicated in Novichok poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in UK
- 2020Accused of spreading disinformation about COVID-19 pandemic to sow discord in the West
- 2021Appointed to the presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences as a specialist in security and strategic planning
- 2022Helped plan and justify Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine
- 2023Threatened Finland over its decision to join NATO, warning of "military and other consequences"
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