Igor Olegovich Shchegolev, Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation, professional journalist, member of Putin's team, is of public interest because of his information secrecy. In the media, he speaks exclusively "on business", rarely appears at social events and never talks about his family. Let's talk about how Igor Shchegolev came to the Kremlin, how his career and personal life developed.
Early years
Igor Olegovich Schegolev was born on November 10, 1951 in the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa. He categorically does not want to talk about his childhood and parents. Journalists suggest that nothing remarkable happened to the future minister of the Russian Federation at that time. From childhood, Igor was a very "decent" child, who did not cause much trouble to his parents.
Education
Igor Schegolev studied at the most ordinary Vinnitsa secondary school. But he studied very well. From childhood, he showed clearly humanitarian inclinations and a great aptitude for languages. Despite his excellent studies at school, Shchegolev was not"botanist". He grew up very contact and active, went in for sports and was already focused on a career from adolescence. After school, he easily entered the Moscow Institute of Foreign Languages. M. Torez. He is fluent in English, French and German.
During two years of study at the institute, Shchegolev showed himself to be a very diligent and promising student. This was the reason that in 1984, as part of an international student exchange program, he went to study in Leipzig at the University. K. Marx. Only trustworthy and excellent students were taken into such programs. In 1988, Igor successfully completed his studies at two universities, defended two theses and received the qualification of a Germanic philologist. During his studies in Leipzig, according to journalists, Shchegolev crossed paths with Vladimir Putin, who headed the House of Soviet-German Friendship there and served in the state security agencies. Informed sources claim that it was then that Putin “recruited” a promising international specialist.
ITAR-TASS
Igor Shchegolev began his career as an editor at the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Union. He worked in the editorial office of the countries of America. In 1992, ITAR-TASS was opened on the basis of this news agency. In it, Shchegolev works as an editor, and then as a senior editor of the general editorial office for European countries. Over the years, he has shown himself not only as a good professional, but also demonstrated his reliability. This allowed him in 1993 to become his owncorrespondent of ITAR-TASS in the Paris edition. During this period, Shchegolev actively wrote, his materials were published in such publications as the newspapers Trud, Izvestia, Krasnaya Zvezda, Segodnya, in the magazines Sovetnik and Anomaly. Notable were his publications on the conference on solving the problems of violence against women in the world, on the first world championship in judo, a review of the memoirs of the French President F. Mitterrand. By this time, Shchegolev had become a recognized expert on European affairs.
In 1997 Shchegolev's business trip abroad ended. He returned to Moscow, where he began working as the head of the European sector in the ITAR-TASS editorial office, then the journalist moved to the position of deputy editor-in-chief of the agency's news service. At this time, Shchegolev became a member of the so-called club of Kremlin journalists, he covered the activities and foreign visits of President B. N. Yeltsin.
Foreign intelligence
The future assistant to the President, already during his years at ITAR-TASS, became an employee of the State Security Committee. In those days, it was the service in the foreign intelligence agencies that was almost a prerequisite for a successful career. Without such cooperation, it was almost impossible to go on a long business trip abroad, especially to a prestigious Parisian editorial office. Shchegolev himself never confirmed or denied his work in foreign intelligence. He does not have a military rank and, according to journalists, was a freelance KGB officer.
Government career
In 1998, Igor Shchegolev, whose biography takes an unexpected turn, goes to work in the government of the Russian Federation, he becomes deputy head of the government information department. This castling indicated that his professional qualities and merits were duly appreciated by the management. In addition, experts say that this transfer signaled that Shchegolev had good connections, because it’s impossible to get into the government just like that.
Three months later Shchegolev became the press secretary of Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov. Igor Olegovich says that before this appointment he was not closely acquainted with Yevgeny Maksimovich, they only crossed paths a few times on foreign trips. Subsequently, Shchegolev became friends with Primakov, and they maintained good relations even after their joint work was completed.
After 2 months, Shchegolev was appointed to the post of head of the government information department. It was a very fast promotion. A year later, however, Shchegolev was removed from this position, but he did not go down and became an adviser to the new Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin.
In 2000, he became the head of the press service of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, and a year later - the head of the protocol of the head of state. He organized events with the participation of the head of state, and also "insured" the presidential press service. Over the years of work in the Government and the Presidential Administration, Shchegolev has developed good contacts, many colleagues speak about himrespond very positively.
Minister Schegolev
In May 2008, after Dmitry Medvedev won the election, quite unexpectedly for the general public, Igor Shchegolev was appointed to the post of Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation. The fact that the new minister had practically no experience in telecommunications caused bewilderment in the ranks of political scientists and the expert community. This gap was filled by the assistants to the minister, who became Alexander Provotorov and Konstantin Malofeev, well-known characters in the communications market.
Shchegolev's merits at the ministerial post are called the completion of the transition of domestic television to digital broadcasting, the creation of a unified regulator of telecommunications and the media, as well as the launch of e-government and the public services website. The minister was also an active supporter of the introduction of various tools for monitoring and supervising the Internet, he was the initiator of the development of a mechanism for surveillance and censorship of online media. Schegolev was repeatedly accused of lobbying the interests of various business structures, but no one could provide any evidence of this.
After V. V. Putin returned to the presidency, Shchegolev lost his seat in the new cabinet.
Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation
In May 2012, an order was issued by President Vladimir Putin, which stated that Igor Olegovich Shchegolev was appointed assistant to the head of state. ATIn this position, he prepares Putin's speeches and organizes his meetings. Shchegolev also works as the editor-in-chief of the Sovetnik magazine, acts as an expert on European countries in the comments for the media.
Private life
While still a minister, Igor Shchegolev, whose personal life is shrouded in a thick veil of secrecy, repeatedly spoke out about the need to tighten legislation in terms of punishments for intrusion into the privacy of citizens. He never talks about his family and the details of the private sphere. Journalists know that Shchegolev is married. His wife, Shchegoleva Rimma Viktorovna, since 1998 has been working as an assistant professor of the German language department at the Academy of Foreign Trade. She has repeatedly passed foreign internships in Germany. Like her husband, she is a specialist in Germanic languages and a great admirer of this culture and country. Nothing is known about whether the Shchegolevs have children.
Interesting facts
Igor Shchegolev, for whom the family is the most closed topic, is a supporter of the idea of introducing criminal liability for paparazzi investigations in the sphere of personal life. Shchegolev has shown himself to be a rather tough leader, he is an active promoter of the "Safe Internet" concept and advocates tougher responsibility for the quality of information in electronic publications.
