Born in 1951.

1974 — graduated from the Institute of Asian and African Countries at Moscow State University.

1995 — PhD, History, Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

1972 — Received linguistic training in Egypt and Turkmenistan.

1974–1976 — Served in the USSR Armed Forces in Algeria.

1976–1982 — Researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS.

1979–1980 — Advisor to the expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR to Libya.

From 1982 to 1986, he was editor of the journal Problems of Peace and Socialism.

From 1976 to 1982 and again from 1986 to 2001, Malashenko worked at the Institute of Oriental Studies at the Russian Academy of Sciences as a research fellow, head of the Islamic Department, and finally as senior associate. In 1990, he was also a visiting professor at Colgate University in New York.

Malashenko was a professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations from 2000 to 2006 and also taught at the Higher School of Economics from 2007 to 2008.

Between 2007–2016 Malashenko was chair of the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Religion, Society, and Security Programme.

From October 2016 — Chief Researcher, DOC Research Institute.

He is also head of INO-centre’s cross-regional project “Islam in Russia”.

Lives in Moscow.