Russia-Ukraine War: Who is Nikolai Patrushev, the possible successor of Vladimir Putin

Nikolai Patrushev he is regarded by all as the natural successor of Vladimir Putin, the most influential figure in the inner circle of power of the Russian president and his best friend since they were young in St. Petersburg. Petersburg, called Leningrad.

Both children of families loyal to the regime, along with parents who were World War II veterans, went to Communist Party schools dedicated to the formation of the ruling class and later joined the State Security Committee, the legendary KGB. . With spy services began their careers at the height of power.

They describe him as a hawk, like a dove that can fly over those sitting with Putin on the strategic Security Council.

Reserved but sociable, one of his children is a minister in the national government and his only distraction at work is volleyball. Three times a week he trains, wearing a jersey with the number 13.

The Western press reports and discusses his figure after the Putin-led invasion of Ukraine with full support and in part inspired by Patrushev.

In particular, the regime’s number two returns to the forefront when it comes to the diseases Putin will suffer, from cancer to Parkinson’s disease.

In recent days, for example, the statements of Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence official, have flourished. He said Putin was “in need of permanent medical care”, but he said he did not know what serious illness he was suffering from.

None of the versions about the Russian president’s health have been confirmed so far.

While Security Council meetings, whose secretary is Nikolai Patrushev, will last an hour, Putin will retreat at an interval to be attended by his doctors.

Steele has overseen MI6’s “Russian desk,” British espionage, for several years and what he says highlights the body that makes major final decisions in the ongoing war.

From the KGB to the inner circle of the Kremlin

Patrushev was the director of the FSB, an acronym that inherited KGB functions until 2008, when Putin had to spend a period out of the presidency, for constitutional reasons no longer, and became prime minister of the loyal Dimitri Medvedev. So he decided to promote his friend Nikolai key charge Secretary of the Security Council.

Both share ideas of Russian nationalism, strongly conservative and religiouswhich considered the West guilty of resisting the role of the world power corresponding to Russia since the time of Ivan the Terrible, in the fifteenth century, considered the founder of the State of Russia.

Putin and Patrushev maintain a common strategy applied to the invasion of Ukraine that began on February 24 to precisely overthrow what they consider to be Russia’s Western siege by US -led NATO.

A year ago, Russian essayist Alexei Solovej wrote: “They think alike, they act on the same thing. And they have a very simple secret purpose. Avoid risks for the State, guarantee a gradual transition that they have decided and not talk about internal and external challenges. ”

Last year, Patrushev celebrated the 70th anniversary of major television news programs in Russia, receiving the honoree along with his usually impassive style.

He was an Army general through his career at the height of espionage, a doctor of Legal Sciences and a laureate engineer at Navy University in St. Louis. Petersburg.

He is considered the leader of Siloviki, which means “strong man” in Russian. They are the ones working for security services, military or civilian. This is the Siloviki that is operate government equipmentmore because one of them, Vladimir Putin, former leader of the KGB and the FSB, has ruled the Russian State since January 1, 2000.

Tougher than Putin

The elite of this elite are the one that is part of the State Security Council. Their names: Sergei Ivanov, Victor Ivanov, Sergey Shoygu (Minister of Defense), Alexander Brotnikov, Sergei Naryshikin. And of course Nikolai Patrushev, who heads the organization.

Rumors assigned Patrushev to develop the concept of “denazification” of Ukraine that Vladimir Putin used as the main reason for the aggression.

Patrushev is considered even stricter than Putin. Last year, when the war was being prepared, he declared in Rossiiskaya newspaper on March 31, that “in order to deter Russia, the West is trying to destabilize the sociopolitical situation in the country, inspire and radicalize the protest movement, and destroy Russia’s traditional spiritual and moral values.”

Mark Galeotti wrote in Moscow Times What is this one of the most combative figures within Putin’s inner circle. “

These ideas can be seen in the national security strategy document published in May 2021, written by Patrushev.

“Russia may use means of force to obstruct or prevent unfriendly actions that threaten the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Federation,” it said. A year later, the invasion of Ukraine began.

Also raised the path of collision to the West who writes that “Russia’s traditional spiritual, moral, and cultural-historical values ​​are being actively attacked by the United States and its allies, as well as by foreign non-profit and non-governmental corporations and religious, extremist groups, and terrorists. “

Mark Galeotti wrote that “the new approach has painted a more disturbing picture of the threats Russia faces from the West.” Galeotti believes Russia’s security strategy was marked by Patrushev.

In the same “crescendo” that ended the aggression, Patrushev also said that the Russophobia campaign attributed to Ukraine before the war was the result of Western propaganda. Extending the historical quote to the times of Ivan the Terrible, the national security strategy document points out that in the 16th century, “Westerners did not like that the Russian tsar did not recognize their political and moral leadership. “

Patrushev wrote that the collapse and dissolution of the Soviet Union was “completely out of the hands of the Western neoliberal elite and they were able to impose their values.”

nationalist and conservative

In an interview with the Russian publication Arguments and lies, said the mess of values ​​led to “the father and mother being renamed as parents number one and two.” He added: “They want to give children the right to determine their own gender.”

These concepts remind Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill against gay celebrations as weapons of Western dissolution.

Patrushev seems to have followed the path of President Putin, who from an atheist and a communist became a nationalist with conservative ideas tightly tied to the teachings of the Orthodox Church.

General Nikolai Patrushev also said last week that “the anti-Russian campaign of the Americans and their satellites convincingly shows that Ukraine has been the reason for launching an undeclared war with Russia.”

Russia’s number two is no stranger to Argentines. He visited our country with the head of a large delegation discussing “issues on technical-military cooperation.”

On December 5, 2017, he met with then -president Mauricio Macri, where he was photographed handing him a shirt of the Russian national team with a World Cup goal that took place in that country a few years later. moon. Argentina and Russia signed the Comprehensive Strategic Association Agreement two years ago.

Rome, Correspondent

CB