Alexei Mikhailovich Vasiliev

Most significantly, Vasiliev was the first in Russia (then Soviet Union) to study the phenomenon of Wahhabism from the works of its founder, Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, and his predecessors. Many of the issues raised in his doctoral dissertation, which was devoted to 18th century Saudi Arabia, have remained relevant to the study of Islamic extremism in the 21st century. The most important monograph by Vasiliev is the fundamental History of Saudi Arabia. It is the first study to provide a comprehensive study of social, economic, political and religious evolution of Saudi Arabia over the period of nearly 250 years. The book uses the broadest range of currently available sources in Arabic, Turkish, English, French, Italian, German, and Russian languages. It is also based on materials from Russian and Soviet archives. Some of the conclusions of the book reach beyond the boundaries of Saudi Arabia. The book is available in Russian, English and Arabic.

Honorary President of the Institute for African Studies of the RAS (since 2015). Director of the Institute for African Studies (1992–2015). Head of the chair for African and Arab Studies of Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (since 2013).

Vasiliev continued the study of Saudi Arabia and published a number of bibliographic works related to the kingdom. One of them is the 2012 work – King Faisal of Saudi Arabia: Personality, Faith and Times – makes an in-depth focus on the role of a person in history of a country. It also touches on the topic of significance of religion and spiritual ideas for the policies of states.

Since 2011, since the start of the events of the Arab Spring, much of Vasiliev's work has been devoted to the revolutionary wave in the Arab world and the analysis of religious extremism and terrorism. In this context, he co-authored the book Recipes of the Arab Spring.

Special Representative of Russian President for Relations with African leaders (2006–2011). President of the Centre for Civilizational and Regional Studies of the RAS. Chairman of the RAS Scientific Council for the problems of economic, socio-political and cultural development of African countries. Member of the International Security Section of the Security Council of the Russian Federation. Member of the Academic-expert Council under the Speaker of the Council of Federation (Senate) of the Russian Federation. Member of the Foreign Policy Council of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Of great importance to the development of Arab societies has been the ratio of private and public property. Over time the ratio was changing, reflecting political shifts, economic reforms or cultural trends. In this connection, Vasiliev in collaboration with Vladimir Kukushkin and Alexander Tkachenko carried out a comparative analysis of the privatization process in Russia, Central Asian and Arab countries. (See Privatization: a Comparative Analysis: Russia, Central Asia, Arab Countries. Moscow, 2002). The study uncovered a number of parallels in the privatization processes in the ex-USSR and the Arab world.

Editor-in-chief of Asia and Africa Today journal (since 1998). Member of the editorial council of Social Evolution & History journal. Member of the Russian Pugwash Committee under the Presidium of the RAS.

Vasiliev was the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for Relations with African Leaders in the framework of G8 summits. As a consultant or a member of the delegation he took part in the 1989 Bush-Gorbachev summit on Malta, the visit of Russian Prime Minister V. Chernomyrdin to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, and Oman in 1994, the visit of the President of the Russian Federation D.A. Medvedev to Egypt, Nigeria, Namibia, and Angola in 2009.

Alexei Mikhailovich Vasiliev (published also under the names Alexey Vasiliev and Alexei Vassiliev; Russian: Алексе́й Миха́йлович Васи́льев; born April 26, 1939, in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is a prominent Russian Arabist and Africanist. Dr. of Science (since 1981), Professor (since 1991), full member (academician) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) since 2011.

Vasiliev was born on April 26, 1939, in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in the family of a serviceman. In 1956 he entered the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). He interned at the University of Cairo (1960–1961). In 1962 he graduated from the Department of Oriental Studies of MGIMO and was assigned to the Pravda newspaper as an assistant political commentator. In 1967 Vasiliev was sent to Vietnam as Pravda's own war correspondent. At that time he also traveled to guerrilla-controlled zones in Laos. In 1969–1971 he worked for Pravda in Moscow, occasionally traveling abroad to report on events in "hot spots". From 1971 to 1975 A.M. Vasiliev worked as a Pravda correspondent in Ankara, Turkey. He was responsible for the region that included Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. He also traveled to Syria to report on the Arab-Israeli war of 1973. In 1975–1979 he worked as Pravda's own correspondent in Egypt and was also responsible for Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Ethiopia. From 1979 to 1983 he worked as a columnist on international relations at the central office of Pravda in Moscow. From his very first days in the Pravda newspaper Vasiliev combined journalism and literary work with academic research. In 1983 A.M. Vasiliev was appointed deputy director of the Institute for African Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1992 he was elected Director of the institute. Subsequently, he was repeatedly re-elected. In 2015 he was elected Honorary President of the Institute for African Studies.

Vasiliev's research interests extend beyond the Middle East. For instance, he carried out an analysis of socio-economic problems of Africa, including Sub-Saharan Africa. In his analysis he assessed African societies as "multi-dimensional, patron-client, with patriarchal, traditional and modern elements". (See the monographs Africa: The Stepchild of Globalization and Africa and the Challenges of the 21st Century).

The monograph Russian policy in the Middle East: From Messianism to Pragmatism, which has also been translated into Arabic and English, contains an analysis of the Soviet/Russian policy in the region from 1917 to 1991 in terms of potential and achieved results of foreign policy and draws a comprehensive picture of the evolution of Russian relations with Middle Eastern countries over 74 years. The second volume of the work, The Limits of Pragmatism, is currently being finalized.