# Nikolai Patrushev Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev (born 1951) is a Russian security official who served as Secretary of the Security Council from 2008 to 2024 and as Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) from 1999 to 2008 — succeeding [[Vladimir Putin]] in the latter role when Putin became prime minister. He is widely regarded as one of Putin's closest and most ideologically aligned advisers, and as the leading hardliner in the Russian security establishment. ## Role and worldview Patrushev is a career KGB/FSB officer from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), part of the same intelligence-service cohort as Putin. His public statements — rare but revealing — present a worldview of permanent Western conspiracy against Russia: the United States and NATO are existential threats, Western democracy promotion is regime-change warfare, and Russia must maintain a permanent war footing against civilizational enemies. He has publicly attributed Russia's domestic problems to Western biological weapons programs, Anglo-Saxon conspiracies, and deliberate economic warfare — rhetoric that goes beyond standard Russian government talking points into conspiratorial territory. His influence on Russian policy is difficult to assess from the outside (the Security Council's deliberations are classified), but analysts who study Russian decision-making consistently identify Patrushev as among the two or three figures whose views most directly shape Putin's strategic calculus. His son, Dmitry Patrushev, serves as a deputy prime minister — an example of the dynastic politics the vault tracks. In May 2024, [[Sergei Shoigu]] replaced Patrushev as Security Council secretary. Patrushev was moved to a less defined advisory role, though his actual influence on Putin may have changed less than his title. ## See Also - [[Vladimir Putin]] — the principal and fellow KGB veteran - [[Russian Government]] — the system - [[Sergei Shoigu]] — his successor at the Security Council