Igor Shchegolev graduated from the Translation Department of the Maurice Thorez Moscow State Institute of Foreign Languages ​​and the German Studies Department of the University of Leipzig in 1988. He worked as an editor of the Main Foreign Information Department of TASS, and in 1993-1997 he was a correspondent for ITAR-TASS in Paris, where he then headed the European countries editorial department and became deputy head of the News Service. He headed the Board of the telecommunications company Svyazinvest.

He has extensive experience in public service: he held the posts of Deputy Head of the Government Information Department of the Russian Government Staff, Press Secretary of the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Advisor to the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, Head of the Press Service Department of the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, Head of the Protocol of the President of the Russian Federation, Minister of Communications and Mass Media, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation, Member of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Central Federal District (current appointment). Holder of the Order of Merit for the Motherland.