Konashenkov Igor Evgenievich

Head of the Department of Information and Mass Communication of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation with the rank of Lieutenant General.

Konashenkov was born on May 15, 1966, in Kishinev, Moldavian SSR. In 1988 he graduated with honors from the Engineering Faculty of the Zhytomyr Higher Military School of Radio Electronics of the Air Defense Forces. In 1998 he graduated from the Military Academy of the Air Defense Forces. In 2006 he completed the Advanced Courses of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Konashenkov served in the missile and space defense forces and in the command of the country's air defense.

Since 1998 Igor Yevgenyevich Konashenkov served in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, starting as a senior officer, head of a group, and deputy head of the department for interaction with Russian and foreign media in the press service. In 2003 he became the head of the press service and assistant to the commander of the North Caucasus Military District. In 2005 he took on the role of head of the press service of the Ground Forces and became an assistant to the Commander of the Ground Forces. Starting in 2009 he worked as the deputy head of the Department of press-service and Information of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. In 2011 Igor Yevgenyevich Konashenkov was appointed by the President as the Head of the Press-service Department of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. In 2013 he was awarded the rank of Major General by the Presidential Decree. In 2017 Igor Yevgenyevich Konashenkov was appointed as the head of the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Since 2022 he holds the rank of Lieutenant General.

Konashenkov led the information support units of the joint military forces in the North Caucasus collective peacekeeping forces (CPSM) in the conflict zone in the Abkhazia region, and peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone in South Ossetia. He reported the Russian operation in Syria.

The spreading of false information about Russian aggression, as well as its justification

Igor Konashenkov is best known for his regular official briefings on the war in Ukraine, becoming a public spokesman for Russian aggression. Putin's press secretary stated that Konashenkov's briefings serve as the main source of information about the war. In them Konashenkov systematically lies about the losses of the armies of both sides, the successes of the Russian army and the captured settlements of Ukraine. Precisely, according to Konashenkov, the Russian army captured the city of Kremennaya four times. According to an escaped lieutenant of the Russian Aerospace Forces, the reason for the inaccuracies in the information in the briefings could be a complete lack of verification of data on losses. Konashenkov also creates a propaganda image among Russians of Ukrainian Nazis.

Since April 8, 2022, he has been under sanctions from all countries of the European Union for manipulating information and disseminating disinformation about Russia’s military actions in Ukraine and promoting a positive opinion about the annexation of Crimea, the actions of separatists in Donbass and the war in general.