The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, received Nikolai Pátrushev, Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, at the Miraflores Palace, as part of his visit to the country to address issues of cooperation between the two nations.
Patrushev’s visit is propitious to hold a meeting between the Security Council of the Russian Federation and the Secretariat of the Defense Council of the Nation of Venezuela, which seeks to consolidate agreements in different strategic areas.
Patrushev is accompanied by Sergey Mélik-Bagdasarov, ambassador of the Russian Federation to Venezuela; as well as Aleksandr Venediktov and Oleg Khramov, deputy secretaries of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, among other authorities.
For its part, the Venezuelan commission is made up of Yván Gil, Foreign Minister of Venezuela; G/J Vladimir Padrino López, Minister of People’s Power for Defense and Sector Vice President of Political Sovereignty, Security and Peace; Remigio Ceballos, Minister of People’s Power for Interior Relations, Justice and Peace of Venezuela and Vice President of the Government for Citizen Security and Peace; and M/G Domingo Hernández Lárez, Operational Strategic Commander of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces, among others.
In 2013, Pátrushev visited Venezuela with the purpose of analyzing – together with Venezuelan authorities – regional security issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, military cooperation and civil defense, as well as the fight against the illegitimate use of narcotics and bilateral cooperation.
Patrushev took Intelligence and Security courses at the Minsk School and at the Moscow Higher School and developed a career within the Committee for State Security, known as the KGB, in Saint Petersburg as an official in the Unit to Combat Smuggling and Corruption , refers to a press release from Ministry for Communication and Information.
From 1999 to 2008, he held the position of Director of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), and since 2008 he has held the position of Secretary of the Security Council, as an advisory body to the President on matters of national security.