Army General, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, and former Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Nikolai Patrushev was born July 11, 1951 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. \nIn 1974, he graduated from the Leningrad Shipbuilding Institute and worked as an engineer in one of its departments. Patrushev joined the Committee for State Security (KGB) in 1974. After graduating from the KGB Higher Courses of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, he served under the counter-intelligence divisions of the KGB’s Leningrad Region Directorate.\nIn 1992, he was appointed security minister of the Republic of Karelia. In 1994-1998, he headed a number of departments at Russia’s Federal Counter-Intelligence Service and Federal Security Service. In 1998, Patrushev was appointed deputy head of the Presidential Executive Office and head of the Main Presidential Control Directorate. Since October 1998, he served as deputy director of the Federal Security Service and head of its Economic Security Department. Since 1999, he served as first deputy director of the Federal Security Service. From August 1999 through May 2008, Patrushev served as director of the Federal Security Service. He was appointed secretary of the Russian Security Council by Presidential Decree No. 749, dated May 12, 2008.\nGeneral Patrushev holds a Sc.D. in law. A Hero of the Russian Federation, Patrushev has received the Order “For Service to the Fatherland” First, Second, Third, and Fourth Classes, the Order of Courage, the Order “For Military Merit,” as well as various Soviet and Russian medals. He has also received a number of foreign awards.\n
