Igor Yurievich Danchenko was born on May 5,1978 and is a Russian citizen and US resident currently residing in Virginia who works as a Eurasia political risk, defense and economics analyst.
23 Facts About Igor Danchenko
1.
2.
In July 2020, Danchenko was revealed to have worked for Christopher Steele's Orbis Business Intelligence as a source for the Steele dossier.
3.
In 1996, Igor Danchenko graduated from Specialized English Language School 7 in Perm, Russia.
4.
Igor 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.
5.
Early in his career, Igor Danchenko worked at Lukoil subsidiary Permtex in Perm and at UralSubSoetStroy in Iran.
6.
From 2003 to 2005, Igor Danchenko worked as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Louisville.
7.
Igor Danchenko worked at the Brookings Institution from 2005 to 2010.
8.
Since 2010, Igor Danchenko has been an analyst on political risk and business intelligence, managing projects on Russia and Eurasia.
9.
Igor Danchenko has been quoted by media outlets on topics ranging from energy politics to defense matters.
10.
Igor 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.
11.
The FBI's investigation into Igor Danchenko was closed in March 2011 after FBI agents mistakenly believed he had fled the country.
12.
Some parts of the information contributed by Igor Danchenko became part of the FBI's foreign intelligence surveillance warrants on Carter Page.
13.
Galkina, a longtime friend of Igor Danchenko, has denied being one of his sources.
14.
On December 20,2016, Igor Danchenko was personally identified as Steele's Primary Sub-source by FBI supervisory intelligence analyst, Brian Auten.
15.
In January 2017, shortly after BuzzFeed News published the Steele dossier, Igor Danchenko was contacted by the FBI for an interview.
16.
In March 2017, the FBI signed up Igor Danchenko to be a paid confidential informant; the relationship was terminated by the FBI in October 2020 after paying Igor Danchenko over $200,000.
17.
The FBI leadership found that Igor Danchenko was "truthful and cooperative" but rank and file agents did not agree.
18.
Igor Danchenko added that he "did not know whether he could support a 'blanket statement' that the Primary Sub-source had been truthful".
19.
In July 2020, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who chaired of the Judiciary Committee, released a 59-page, redacted FBI summary of the FBI's interview with Igor Danchenko, while referring to the entire Russia investigation as "corrupt".
20.
Shortly after the release of the summary, Igor Danchenko was identified online as the "Primary Subsource"; he was named in a newly created blog; the blog post was then promoted by a pseudonymous Twitter account created two months earlier, and the identity of Igor Danchenko was amplified by RT, the English-language Kremlin propaganda outlet.
21.
Former FBI officials, such as James W McJunkin, formerly the Bureau's assistant director for counterterrorism, said that the release of information that outed Danchenko would make it more difficult for the FBI to gain the trust of potential sources.
22.
In September 2020, a declassified FBI summary revealed that Igor Danchenko had been identified by the FBI as Christopher Steele's Primary Sub-Source in December 2016.
23.
In November 2021, Igor Danchenko was arrested in connection with the John Durham investigation and was charged with five counts of making false statements to the FBI on five different occasions regarding the sources of material he provided for the Steele dossier.