Andrei Patrushev buys stake in Arkhangelsk Seaport
The youngest son in Russia's powerful FSB family acquires 10 percent of the strategically important infrastructure object as part of his aspirations in the Arctic.
With the acquisition, Patrushev teams up with port owners Vaiz Invest, TD Bulat-SBS and Investment Industrial Partner.
Vaiz Invest controls 60 percent of port, Barents Observer Russian reports with reference to RTVI.
The Port of Arkhangelsk is a strategically important infrastructure object used for shipments to sites across the Russian Arctic.
Andrei Patrushev from before owns stakes in several more companies engaged in Arctic development.
In 2019, Patrushev took on the lead of Avrora, a company that subsequently rapidly expanded in Russia’s far northern oil and gas industry. In 2022, Avrora suddenly changed name to Gazprom Shelf Project. Despite the name, the company is reportedly not a subsidiary unit of Gazprom.
Gazprom Shelf Project is believed to take over the management of the vessels and drilling rigs that until recently were controlled by Gazprom Flot. The fleet includes Russia’s most powerful and advanced rigs, among them the Arkticheskaya, Polyarnaya Zvezda and Severnoye Siyaniye.
Patrushev also controls a 37,7 percent stake in the Marine Arctic Geo Exploration Expedition (MAGE), a key shelf exploration company based in Murmansk.
The 42-year old son of Russia’s top national security chief Nikolai Patrushev has also served several years in the offshore Arctic branch of Gazprom Neft.
Andrei Patrushev now looks set to become the main contractor on shelf exploration for both Gazprom and Novatek.
Patrushev Junior is born into the FSB. He studied at the security service Academy and reportedly worked three years as Deputy Head of the FSB’s Department “P” that is in charge of industry counterintelligence. He later worked closely with Igor Sechin in Rosneft before he in 2013 joined Gazprom, a survey compiled by Novaya Gazeta shows.
Meanwhile, his four year older brother Dmitry chose the same career path in the FSB and today serves as Russian Minister of Agriculture.
The Patrushev Family is headed by Nikolai Patrushev, the man who has devoted his life to the KGB and later FSB. Before becoming Secretary of the Russian Security Council in 2008, he headed the FSB for almost ten years.
