Nikolai Patrushev: Putin's trusted confidant and possible successor

There aren't a lot of people that Russian president Vladimir Putin trusts however, it seems that Nikolai Patrushev is among the select few, the Russian leaders deems worthy.

Not only that, but it is rumored that Nikolai Patrushev could be Putin's possible successor, should there ever be the need to replace the leader at the helm of Russia.

Nikolai Patrushev, according to the British newspaper The Sun, is the one who would  take over the leadership of Russia if Putin ever has to undergo an operation or fell ill.

Not only have rumors of a possible cancer diagnoisis been haunting Putin. In addition, the Daily Mail has hinted that the Russian leader could be suffering from Parkinson's disease, despite the Kremlin's insistence that the leader's health is impeccable.

Thus, the name of Nikolai Patrushev, an influential figure in Putin's circle, is brought into play in order to occupy the executive chair temporarily until his return (there are also those that say Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu could be Putin's successor, but the tactical mistakes and difficulties of the invasion of Ukraine put him in a worse position).

As The Sun reports, Nikolai Patrushev would assume leadership of Russia in the absence of the Russian President, either through illness or perhaps permanently.

Nikolai Patrushev is one of Vladimir Putin's closest confidants and a hardliner in the regime. He obviously belongs to the "siloviki", the Russian term for the president's inner circle of power.

A circle that today consists of Nikolai Patrushev, Sergei Ivanov, Viktor Ivanov, Sergei Shoigu, Alexander Bornikow and Sergei Naryshkin. Some add Sergei Lavrov (Foreign Minister) and some other names. In any case, it is a core of power that brings together Russian leaders who are in one way or another linked to the intelligence services.

Anyone who knows him knows that Nikolai Patrushev, at 71, is even more ideologically extreme than Vladimir Putin himself.

It seems that Nikolai Patrushev was the one who finally convinced Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine and use the term "denazification".

In addition, Nikolai Patrushev theorizes that the West is at war with Russia. Ben Nobble, Professor of Russian Politics at University College London, told the BBC: "Patrushev is the most hawkish hawk, thinking the West has been out to get Russia for years."

From 1999 to 2008 Nikolai Patrushev was head of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor organization to the legendary KGB.

In 2008, Nikolai Patrushev was appointed Secretary of the Russian Security Council, a position he still holds.

Nikolai Patrushev is Vladimir Putin's top defense adviser, and his ideals point to the fall of the Soviet Union "tying the hands of the Western neoliberal elite."

"In order to contain Russia, the West is trying to destabilize the socio-political situation in the country, radicalize the protest movement and undermine Russia's traditional spiritual and moral values," he told Rossiyskaya Gazeta in March 2021.

According to the Daily Mail, Nikolai Patrushev is the only man Putin really trusts and who would override his prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, when appointing a successor. This is unusual in the Russian legal system, although it is doubtful that it would pose a problem for Putin in such a case.

Nokolai's son, Dmitry Patrushev, has been Russia's Minister of Agriculture since 2018 and claims, among other things, that the United States supported Hitler on his way to power, as published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

So the riddle of Putin's successor has not yet been solved: Nikolai Patrushev, a hardliner among hardliners, would be one possibility. However, other analysts are hopeful that another, more dovish leader, willing to compromise with the West, could one day lead Russia. The eternal doubt of a country always torn between its own peculiarities and its equally undeniable links with Europe.