Is This The Man Who Replace Putin?

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and Russia's President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with the Secretary-General of the Japanese National Security Council. Mikhail Metzel\TASS  

Washington Post: The man who has Putin’s ear — and may want his job 

When Russian President Vladimir Putin held the final meeting of his Security Council before launching the invasion of Ukraine, one Kremlin hawk seemed to dominate the room. 

Nikolai Patrushev, the powerful Security Council secretary and close Putin ally from their days together at the KGB in St. Petersburg, told the Russian president that the United States was behind tensions in eastern Ukraine and seeking to orchestrate Russia’s collapse. “Our task is to defend the territorial integrity of our country and defend its sovereignty,” Patrushev said in broadcast remarks. 

Patrushev, whose position is equivalent to the U.S. national security adviser, was expressing a Cold War view that has driven Putin’s war. Ever since Putin ordered the Feb. 24 invasion, blindsiding much of the country’s elite, Patrushev has become a hard-line avatar for a militaristic Russia.  

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WNU Editor: Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev does have Putin's ear. They have been working together for decades. But Nikolai Patrushev is an apparatchik .... he is not a politician. If he replaces Putin it will be a temporary measure until the next Russian Presidential election. 

The next Russian leader will be someone who can form coalitions and appeal to the many different groups that make up Russia today. Nikolai Patrushev is not that man.