Vitaly Nikitich Ignatenko (Russian: Виталий Никитич Игнатенко; born 19 April 1941) is a Russian journalist and politician who had been the head of ITAR-TASS news agency from 1993 until 2012 and had served in the cabinet of Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin from 1995 to 1997 as deputy prime minister.

He has also been a member of different journalism organizations and foundations promoting the Russian language and Russian-speaking press.

Graduating from Moscow State University with a degree in journalism, he worked for the Komsomolskaya Pravda and Novoye Vremya newspapers in the 1980s.

[3] On June 2, 1995, Ignatenko was appointed Deputy Chairman of Government of the Russian Federation for media affairs.

[4] In 1997, during the Tajikistani Civil War, he was in contact with a local warlord to organize the release of foreign hostages.