Scholar and Expert on Soviet and American Film Industry, political and civic activist, he published in Russia 16 books on sociology of cinema  and grassroots democracy and social capital in times of Perestroika. 

Ph.D., Professor, writer, film critic and sociologist, was one of the participants who started the “Revolution” at  the Filmmakers Union if the USSR at the end of the 1980’s. He headed the famous American/Soviet Film Initiative, influenced the Moscow International  Film Festival towards  being more open, initialed the HBO movie “STALIN”, starring Robert Duvall, hosted the National educational TV talk Show “What is New Hollywood”, launched the first Business School in Russia for Producers followed by his textbook “Film as a Business”.

In 1998 he was asked by Nikita Mikhalkov to set up and edit the weekly trade paper of the Filmmakers Union “SK-News”, where he successfully worked till 2001.

For many years Igor was teaching in VGIK (State Institute of Cinematography) Moscow, at the world known liberal State University High School of Economics, Moscow, and at Chapman University, Orange County, Los Angeles.

Being expelled from Putin’s Russia as a “foreign agent” (since his NGO “Citizen Foundation” was sponsored by the US AID and other West funds), he recently wrote the book “Confession of a “Foreign Agent” which was highly acclaimed by Richard Pipes as a deep  insight of the transformation  happened in the Soviet Union and Russia for the last half century.