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,[c] 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).[8][12]
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.[6] 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.[7][13]
Shchyogolev actively supports the activities of the ultraright Black International (Russian: «Черный Интернационал»), which supports neo-Nazi activities, and is the main sponsor of Konstantin Malofeev events.[11][14]
Sovetnik magazine
He is an expert on European countries for press releases and is an editor-in-chief of the Sovetnik magazine (Russian: журнала «Советник») which is a magazine about public relations (PR) (Russian: общественных связей (ОС)) and the PR market.[13] At Sovetnik, he replaced Boris Lvovich Eryomin (also transliterated as Boris Lvovich Eremin) who had been at the journal for 14 years.[7][15]
His wife Rimma Viktorovna Shchyogoleva (Russian: Римма Викторовна Щёголева; born 5 April 1963)[12][22] is, since 1998, a professor in German language at Academy of Foreign Trade (Russian: Академия внешней торговли) and often travels to Germany for internships.[13]
Their son Svyatoslav Igorevich Shchyogolev (Russian: Святослав Игоревич Щёголев; born 29 June 1989) is a producer at RT, which was formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (Russian: Россия Сегодня) 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 (Russian: консультанта отдела международного сотрудничества Управления международного права и сотрудничества) with the High Court of Arbitration (VAS) (Russian: (ВАС)).[23][24][25]
^Improperly romanized as Shchogolev and Shchegolev.
^Alternatively romanized as Ščjogolev or Schögoleff.
^Allegedly, he served as an undercover KGB official while he was posted in Paris to ITAR-TASS and ran a network for Russian intelligence which included persons recruited in the 1980s including both Count Serge de Pahlen (born 1944), who is a member of the Pahlen family of the Russian nobility and, since 1981, the husband of Margherita Agnelli de Pahlen who is the daughter of the principal shareholder of FiatGianni Agnelli, and Prince Alexander Trubetskoy (born 1947), who lives in France and, since 2010, is a member of the board of Svyazinvest and is the son of a White émigré prince of the Trubetskoy family of the Russian nobility.[9][10] Alexander Trubetskoy was a business partner of Konstantin Malofeev.[11]
^Konstantin Malofeev was chairman of the board of the League of Safe Internet (LSI) until 2015.
References
^Ministry of Telecommunications of Russia (2009). Щёголев Игорь Олегович [Biography of I. O. Shchyogolev]. Official website (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2009-11-28. Retrieved 2011-12-18.
^ abDigital October (2010). "Igor Shchyogolev". Tech Crunch 2010 Russia biography. Archived from the original on 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
^ abRussia Profile (2008-07-28). "Igor Shchyogolev". BackGround :: People. Archived from the original on 2011-12-16. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
^ abc"Щеголев, Игорь: Помощник президента РФ" [Shchegolev, Igor: Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation] (in Russian). 15 November 2023. Archived from the original on 16 November 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2023.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^Belton, Catherine (29 April 2020). Putin'S People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN9780007578795. See Chapter 10 Obschak and notes 76 to 91 in Chapter 10 Obschak.
^"ЕРЕМИН БОРИС ЛЬВОВИЧ" [EREMIN BORIS LVOVICH]. Российская академия общественных связей (РАОС) (pracademy.ru) (Russian Academy of Public Relations RAOS or RAPR) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 15 November 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
^""Лига безопасного интернета"" [League of Safe Internet]. ruscharity.ru (in Russian). 18 April 2012. Archived from the original on 18 April 2012. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
^"ЩЕГОЛЕВ Святослав Игоревич" [SHCHEGOLEV Svyatoslav Igorevich]. rupep.org (in Russian). November 2023. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
^"Преемники 2.0 (аристократы)" [Successors 2.0 (aristocrats)]. Петербургская политика (fpp.spb.ru) (in Russian). 30 May 2018. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023. Retrieved 15 November 2023.