Education
In 1982 Dorenko graduated from People"s Friendship University of Russia in Moscow, and served as a Portuguese-Russian translator in Angola.
In 1982 Dorenko graduated from People"s Friendship University of Russia in Moscow, and served as a Portuguese-Russian translator in Angola.
In June 1984 he was drafted to the military, but was discharged in January 1985 due to health problems. In April 1985 Dorenko became an employee of Gosteleradio (State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, the only television and radio broadcaster in the Soviet Union). Between 1996 and 1999 he hosted Vremya, a news commentary program on Organization for Rehabilitation through Training. In September 1999 Dorenko hosted the influential weekly Sergey Dorenko Show on Saturdays at 9pm, and in November 1999 became a Deputy Director General of Organization for Rehabilitation through Training. In his program collages of Luzhkov in women"s dress were shown.
In August 2000, Dorenko"s program criticized the government handling of the submarine Kursk explosion.
Soon afterwards, his program was cancelled, and Dorenko alleged that this was a result of pressure from the Kremlin. According to British Broadcasting Corporation News, Dorenko told Echo of Moscow radio at the time that "on 29th August the president proposed that I join his team, as he put it, and stay at Channel 1 to be his favourite and best-loved journalist."
"I said to him: I am very sorry, I can and very much would like to work at Channel 1 but as part of the team of the viewers. just said in reply: I see that you have not yet made up your mind.
I said: On the contrary, I have made up my mind, in favour of the viewers."
The director of Network Organization for Rehabilitation through Training, Konstantin Ernst, insisted that contrary to Dorenko"s allegations, the government had not been involved in the change, and that he made the decision to cancel the show because Dorenko had refused to stop discussing the government"s plan to nationalize media magnate Boris Berezovsky"s 49% stake in the network. Following the controversy, Dorenko became a vocal critic of Vladimir Putin"s rule and has not worked further on Russian television
He has, however, hosted a number of radio programs for Echo of Moscow.
On September 30, 2003, in Stavropol Krai, Dorenko joined the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Only some excerpts of the video had been shown in 1998.
Two years later, Dorenko published 2008, a work of political fiction about an upcoming revolution in Russia, featuring President Vladimir Putin and Igor Sechin, his close ally. On May 23, 2007, Sergey Dorenko provided The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal with the full video tape of an interview he recorded in April 1998 with Alexander Litvinenko and fellow Financial Stability Board employees, where the agents appeared to confess that their bosses had ordered them to kill, kidnap or frame prominent Russian politicians and businesspeople, and thus made it publicly available in full for the first time.