Igor Olegovich Shchyogolev (Игорь Олегович Щёголев; born 10 November 1965) is a Russian politician. From May 2008 to 20 May 2012, he has served as the Russian Minister of Telecommunications. He has the federal state civilian service rank of 1st class Active State Councillor of the Russian Federation.

Early life and education

Shchyogolev was born in Vinnitsa, Ukraine SSR and went to the Moscow State Linguistic University (1982–1984) and the Leipzig University (1984–1988), graduating as a philologist fluent in French, German, and English. While Shchyogolev was in Leipzig from 1984 to 1988, Vladimir Putin was a KGB officer at Dresden from 1985 to 1990 and also headed the House of Soviet-German Friendship in Leipzig.

Career

After graduating from university, he allegedly joined the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union (later, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Information Telegraph Agency of Russia or ITAR-TASS) in their American office until 1993. He then moved to Paris as a foreign correspondent, and in 1997 moved back to Russia as deputy editor-in-chief and political correspondent of ITAR-TASS's main news service. At the same time he also worked in the 1st Main Directorate (PGU) of KGB of the USSR (foreign intelligence).

Government service

In 1998, Shchyogolev left ITAR-TASS to work for the Russian government, initially as deputy head of the government corps of press officer, then briefly as Yevgeniy Primakov's press secretary before returning to lead the press officer corps. In early 2000, he was appointed as press secretary for Vladimir Putin, then-acting President of Russia, where he stayed until the end of 2001 when he became head of Presidential Protocol, co-ordinating presidential trips overseas and in Russia. In 2004, his job was expanded to be head of Kremlin Protocol, where he stayed until he was appointed "Minister of Communications and Mass Media" as part of Putin's second cabinet on 12 May 2008, replacing Leonid Reiman. He held that position until resigning from that post in May 2012 when he became an assistant to the president and is Vladimir Putin's speechwriter and organizer of his meetings. Shchyogolev actively supports the activities of the ultraright Black International, which supports neo-Nazi activities, and is the main sponsor of Konstantin Malofeev events.

Sovetnik magazine

He is an expert on European countries for press releases and is an editor-in-chief of the Sovetnik magazine which is a magazine about public relations (PR) and the PR market. At Sovetnik, he replaced Boris Lvovich Eryomin (also transliterated as Boris Lvovich Eremin) who had been at the journal for 14 years.

League of Safe Internet

He is chairman of the board of trustees of League of Safe Internet (LSI) which is sometimes transliterated as the Safe Internet League (SIL). Ekaterina Mikhailovna Mizulina (born 1 September 1984, Yaroslavl), who is the daughter of Yelena Mizulina, leads the League of Safe Internet which was established in January 2011 by the July 2007 established and Konstantin Malofeev associated St Basil the Great Charitable Foundation. Through the League of Safe Internet and with support from both Shchyogolev and Roskomnadzor, Mizulina supports internet censorship especially internet coverage of events involving Russian invasion of Ukraine and, on 24 May 2022, threatened Google and Wikipedia by stating "First, we will clear Ukraine of the Nazis and Banderites, and then we will get to Google and Wikipedia"

U.S. sanctions target

In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 6 April 2022 the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury added Shchyogolev to its list of persons sanctioned pursuant to.

Personal life

His wife Rimma Viktorovna Shchyogoleva (born 5 April 1963) is, since 1998, a professor in German language at Academy of Foreign Trade and often travels to Germany for internships. Their son Svyatoslav Igorevich Shchyogolev (born 29 June 1989) is a producer at RT, which was formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya and is a brand of ANO TV-Novosti, and, since 8 November 2011, is a consultant in the Department of International Cooperation of the Directorate of International Law and Cooperation with the High Court of Arbitration (VAS).