Prof. Raphael Mirgasimovich Valeev is the Deputy Director for research at the Institute of International Relations, head of the Department of World Heritage of Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University, an expert of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, an architect dealing with conservation issues. In 1977, he graduated with honors from the Faculty of History and Philology of Kazan State University (now Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University), in 1981 – postgraduate studies at the Institute of Language, Literature and History named after G. I. Ibragimov of the Kazan branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1990 he defended his PhD thesis, in 2011 he defended his doctoral dissertation on the specialty «archeology». Since 2007, he has been a professor, Honored Worker of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan (since 1996), Honored Worker of Science of the Republic of Tatarstan (since 2019). Since the 1990s, he has been actively involved in the management of heritage, its preservation and restoration, organizing expeditions around the Republic of Tatarstan, studying and documenting heritage objects. He supervised the preparation of a number of nominations for the UNESCO World Heritage List, including for the objects «Historical and architectural complex «Kazan Kremlin» (2000), «Bulgarian historical and Archaeological Complex» (2014), «Uspenskiy Cathedral and Uspensliy Monastery of the island city of Sviyazhsk» (2017). He is the author of more than 200 publications and methodological works, including 20 monographs.