Nikolai Patrushev

Nikolai Platonovich Patrushev (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.

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.

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'."

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.

Honours and awards

 * State awards
 * Hero of the Russian Federation
 * Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 1st class (2006), 2nd class, 3rd class and 4th class
 * Order of Courage
 * Order of Military Merit
 * Order of Naval Merit
 * Order of Honour
 * Jubilee Medal "300 Years of the Russian Navy"
 * Medal "In Commemoration of the 850th Anniversary of Moscow"
 * Jubilee Medal "60 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Jubilee Medal "70 Years of the Armed Forces of the USSR"
 * Medal Anatoly Koni
 * Medal for Strengthening Military Cooperation (Defence)
 * Medal for Strengthening Military Cooperation (Defence)
 * Medal for Strengthening Military Cooperation (Defence)
 * Medal "Diligence in carrying out engineering tasks" (Defence)
 * Medal for distinction in military service (MOD), 1st class
 * Meritorious Service, 2nd class


 * Russian regions
 * Medal "For Services to the Stavropol Territory" (Stavropol Territory, June 2003)
 * Honorary Citizen of the Republic of Karelia


 * Foreign Awards
 * Order of the Cross, 1st class (Armenia, 2003)
 * Medal of Honour (Belarus, 2001)
 * Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, 3rd class (Ukraine, 23 May 2001) - for his contribution in the development of cooperation between the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation and the Security Service of Ukraine in the fight against international terrorism, organized crime and drug trafficking


 * Religious Awards
 * Order of St Dmitri Donskoy, the Blessed Great Prince of Moscow, 1st Class (Russian Orthodox Church, 2005) - The saint allegedly wards off 'all kinds of threats for the sake of multiplying the faith and piety of the people, strengthening families and protecting from bodily extinction and spiritual death'.