Who Is Nikolai Patrushev? Putin Loyalist Touted as His Successor

An unfounded claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin suffered a cardiac arrest and died last week was accompanied by the rumor that Nikolai Patrushev, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, had become the country’s new leader.

The rumor of Putin’s “death”, which the Kremlin has called a “hoax,” emerged after a Telegram post by Russian gossip channel General SVR on October 26 stated that Putin died at his residence in Valdai at “20:42 p.m. Moscow time,” sparking “a coup d’état in Russia.”

The Telegram account, which has nearly half a million subscribers, claims to have insider information from the Kremlin, but it has published misinformation on multiple occasions. The channel’s author is anonymous.

The Russian president has also been seen in public, attending government meetings, since the Telegram posts were published.

The channel claimed that Patrushev, a member of Putin’s inner circle, and a former director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), had been giving instructions to government officials since the alleged incident.

But while General SVR’s claim was false, its hunch that Patrushev could be a likely successor to Putin may not be so far-fetched.

Patrushev, who worked together with Putin at the KGB in St. Petersburg, is known for advocating the Kremlin’s hardline policies. He gave several interviews with Russian newspapers justifying Putin’s decision to launch the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Yevgeny Anoshin, the Security Council spokesman, has described Patrushev as “a patriot” and a “state actor who for many years has been devoted to the Russian Federation and to Putin.”

Putin has not publicly named a successor, but Richard Dearlove, who served as head of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1999 to 2004, said in July 2022 that Patrushev, a longtime Putin ally, is the most likely candidate to succeed the Russian president.

Stephen Hall, lecturer in politics at the University of Bath, previously told Newsweek that Patrushev would make a good candidate to replace Putin because he “has been very good in the past of manipulating what is necessary, and he’s very good at playing all sides off and retaining his power.”

“So it is strongly possible [that he could succeed Putin],” Hall said.

At 72, Patrushev is a year older than Putin, but that may not be a disadvantage. The Kremlin has decided that one of the main criteria for candidates seeking to replace Putin in next year’s presidential election is that they not be under the age of 50, Meduza, an independent Russian media outlet, reported in August.

The General SVR account provided a colorful, but apparently completely fictional, account of what was happening among Russia’s leaders following Putin’s supposed death, stressing the central role played by Patrushev.

“Now the doctors are blocked in the room with Putin’s corpse, they are being held by employees of the presidential security service on the personal order of [Federal Protective Service Director] Dmitry Kochnev, who is in touch and receives instructions from the secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Nikolai Patrushev,” General SVR said.

“The security of the president’s double has been strengthened. Active negotiations are underway. Any attempt to pass off a double as president after Putin’s death is a coup d’état.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said the claim that Putin suffered a cardiac arrest and died was “just another hoax,” and that “everything is fine.”

“Nikolai Patrushev leads the country,” the General SVR channel said in another post on October 30.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin is dead. His place is occupied by an impostor! We continue to inform you about everything that is happening in the country’s leadership, and numerous confirmations of our information will soon appear.”

Newsweek has contacted Russia’s Foreign Ministry via email for additional comment.

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