Patrushev revealed his involvement in the operation to kill bin Laden
Russian Presidential Aide Nikolai Patrushev stated that the FSB allegedly participated in planning the operation to eliminate Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden alongside the CIA. According to him, there was an agreement between Russia and the United States, but Washington failed to fulfill it. There is currently no confirmation of these claims from the American side.
According to Patrushev, the cooperation agreement was reached at the leadership level of both countries. He claims that each intelligence agency was assigned its own task. According to his account, the CIA was to carry out the operation directly, while the FSB was to help pinpoint Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts. “Each agency was assigned its own role: on one side was the CIA, on the other—the FSB. They asked us to place a tracking device near his location. And they were supposed to carry out the strike and eliminate him. That was the agreement,” Patrushev stated.
He also claims that the Russian side allegedly fulfilled its part of the agreement. According to him, the U.S. was convinced that the FSB would not be able to handle the task; however, after receiving the necessary information, the American side, according to his account, called off the strike. “They were convinced that we wouldn’t carry out the mission. We carried out the mission… They didn’t dare; they didn’t launch the strike,” Patrushev said.
According to the Russian presidential aide, the CIA director allegedly did not explain to the Russian side the reasons why the operation was not carried out at that time. At the same time, Patrushev did not provide any evidence or documents confirming the existence of such agreements.
Separately, he repeated the claim, widely circulated in Russian propaganda, that Osama bin Laden was allegedly a U.S. agent. “We know that he was their agent, and they used him until a certain point. And when he started getting in their way, they simply eliminated him,” Patrushev stated.
It is worth noting that this statement is not corroborated by official U.S. data or independent sources. The U.S. side has not previously reported any involvement by the FSB in the preparation of the operation against the leader of “Al-Qaeda.”
As a reminder, Osama bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011, during a special operation by U.S. special forces in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. According to official U.S. information, the operation lasted about 38 minutes. Then-U.S. President Barack Obama announced the operation. U.S. authorities stated that the operation was carried out by the U.S. military without the involvement of other countries. Following Patrushev’s latest statement, no comments have yet been received from the CIA or other official U.S. representatives regarding his remarks. This was reported by Russian media.
