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President Vladimir Putin awards Order for Services to Fatherland to former TASS chief

The award is for his "great contribution to implementing Russia’s foreign policy, public activity and longstanding conscientious work"

MOSCOW, April 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to award the Order for Services to the Fatherland 1st class to former TASS Director-General Vitaly Ignatenko. The decree was uploaded to the official portal of legal information on Tuesday.

Ignatenko, who led TASS for more than 20 years and currently holds the post of World Association of Russian Press President, turned 80 on Monday.

The award is for his "great contribution to implementing Russia’s foreign policy, public activity and longstanding conscientious work."

Ignatenko was born in Sochi on April 19, 1941. In 1963, he graduated from the department of journalism of the Moscow State University. He started his journalistic career as an intern at the Young Communist League’s daily Komsomolskaya Pravda to walk up the career ladder to the daily’s deputy editor-in-chief. In the late 1980s, Ignatenko led New Times magazine. In 1990-1991, he was Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s aide and chief of his press-service.

On August 28, 1991 Ignatenko was appointed as TASS Director-General to run the agency till September 17, 2012. Alongside this in May 1995 - March 1997 he was Russia’s deputy prime minster responsible for overseeing mass media affairs.

Since 1999 Ignatenko has held the post of the World Association of Russian Press President and board chairman of the World Russian Press Foundation (WARP Foundation). Since November 2018, Ignatenko has led the Council for Public Television of Russia.