Mr Ignatenko began his career as a reporter for Komsomolskaya Pravda, rising to the rank of First Deputy Chief Editor. He also supervised the Presidential Press Service from 1990-1991 and, from 1999, he is President of the World Association of the Russian Language Press. In 2008 he was designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador in recognition of his efforts to strengthen educational, scientific, culturaland information exchanges among all Russian language speakers, and his promotion of the Russian language and culture around the world.

Vitaly Ignatenko contributes, through his actions, to the building of the capacities of the Russian language journalists and to the promotion of the free circulation of ideas in the Russian-speaking part of the world.