Igor Danchenko

Igor Yurievich Danchenko (born May 5, 1978) is a Russian citizen and U.S. resident currently residing in Virginia who works as a Eurasia political risk, defense and economics analyst.

They also presented evidence of extensive plagiarism in the dissertation, including a translation of a 1978 textbook.

The Russian dissertation committee disputed their accusations.

Together with Clifford Gaddy he analyzed Vladimir Putin's 1996 university dissertation and presented examples of plagiarism.

In 1996, Danchenko graduated from Specialized English Language School 7 in Perm, Russia.

Danchenko graduated from the Law Faculty of Perm State University and the Department of Political Science at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, United States.

While working at the Brookings Institution, Danchenko earned a master's degree from Georgetown University.

Danchenko first made the news alongside his Brookings Institution colleague, Cliff Gaddy, when they obtained a copy of the previously inaccessible 218-page dissertation of Vladimir Putin entitled The Strategic Planning of Regional Resources Under the Formation of Market Relations, which he defended at the St. Petersburg Mining Institute in 1996.

Between 1999 and 2005, he was a facilitator for the Open World Russian Leadership Program, US Library of Congress and a leader for senior Russian federal and regional delegations to the US.

From 2003 to 2005, Danchenko worked as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Louisville.

Danchenko worked at the Brookings Institution from 2005 to 2010.

While there, Danchenko worked closely with Fiona Hill.

From 2006 to 2009 he attended the CERES (Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies) program at the Walsh School of Foreign Service there.

Early in his career, Danchenko worked at Lukoil subsidiary Permtex in Perm and at UralSubSoetStroy in Iran.

Danchenko and Gaddy revealed their findings on March 30, 2006, at a Brookings Institution event, where they discussed the dissertation's relevance to Putin's views on governance and the economy.

In May 2009, the FBI opened a preliminary investigation into Danchenko after he had reportedly told two associates from the Brookings Institution that he knew of a way they could "make a little extra money” if they were able to "get a job in the government and had access to classified information.” The investigation was upgraded from preliminary to full once further information revealed that Danchenko had prior contacts with Russian intelligence officers in 2005 and 2006.

In 2010, Danchenko, Hill and Erica Downs co-authored a paper called "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back? The Realities of a Rising China and Implications for Russia’s Energy Ambitions".

Hill introduced Danchenko to Christopher Steele and to U.S.-based public-relations executive Charles Dolan Jr., who would later become one of Danchenko's sources for the Steele dossier.

Since 2010, Danchenko has been an analyst on political risk and business intelligence, managing projects on Russia and Eurasia.

Danchenko has been quoted by media outlets on topics ranging from energy politics to defense matters.

The FBI's investigation into Danchenko was closed in March 2011 after FBI agents mistakenly believed he had fled the country.

Beginning in March 2016, Danchenko was tasked by Christopher Steele to investigate Paul Manafort, as well as Donald Trump, Sergei Ivanov, Carter Page, and Michael Cohen.

Some parts of the information contributed by Danchenko became part of the FBI's foreign intelligence surveillance warrants on Carter Page.

One of Danchenko's primary sources for information about the alleged collusion between the Donald Trump 2016 presidential campaign and the Russian government was allegedly Olga Galkina, a Russian public-relations executive and former parliamentary correspondent for RIA Novosti who was also under FISA investigation for being a Russian agent.

Olga expected to be given a job in HRC's State Department for the dirt she helped deliver.

Galkina, a longtime friend of Danchenko, has denied being one of his sources.

Other information was alleged to have come from Charles Dolan Jr., who was "a longtime participant in Democratic Party politics".

On December 20, 2016, Danchenko was personally identified as Steele's Primary Sub-source by FBI supervisory intelligence analyst, Brian Auten.

In January 2017, shortly after BuzzFeed News published the Steele dossier, Danchenko was contacted by the FBI for an interview.

About a week and a half later, in exchange for legal immunity, he agreed to answer questions about his working relationship with Steele, as well as his opinion on the accuracy of the Steele dossier.

In March 2017, the FBI signed up Danchenko to be a paid confidential informant; the relationship was terminated by the FBI in October 2020 after paying Danchenko over $200,000.

The FBI leadership found that Danchenko was "truthful and cooperative" but rank and file agents did not agree.

The FBI's Supervisory Intel Analyst said that "it was his impression that the Primary Sub-source may not have been 'completely truthful' and may have been minimizing certain aspects of what he/she told Steele".

He also "believed that there were instances where the Primary Sub-source was 'minimizing' certain facts but did not believe that he/she was 'completely fabricating' events".

He added that he "did not know whether he could support a 'blanket statement' that the Primary Sub-source had been truthful".

In July 2020, Danchenko was revealed to have worked for Christopher Steele's Orbis Business Intelligence as a source for the Steele dossier.

In November 2021, he was indicted on charges of lying to the FBI about the identities of his sources but "not about the information [in the dossier] itself".

He was acquitted of all charges in October 2022.

Danchenko grew up in Perm Oblast, Russia.

In July 2020, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who chaired the Judiciary Committee, released a 59-page, redacted FBI summary of the FBI's interview with Danchenko, while referring to the entire Russia investigation as "corrupt".