Vyacheslav Smolenskiy

After graduating in 2002 from the Tver Medical University, Dr Smolenskiy joined the state public health agency Rospotrebnadzor in 2004 in the Epidemiological Surveillance Department. In 2008, he took the position of Deputy Director of the Science and International Cooperation Department and between 2011 and 2018 he served as Director for Science and International Relations.

Dr Smolenskiy got his PhD in epidemiology in 2012. He also received a master’s degree in business administration from the Kingston University in London. He is an author and co-author of more than 20 scientific publications, including on biological security and IHR related topics, and 2 monographs.

In his day-to-day work, he coordinates multilateral and bilateral international relations of Rospotrebnadzor with UN agencies (including WHO, FAO, UNAIDS, Codex Alimentarius, IAEA etc), relevant international and intergovernmental organizations (CIS, G20, BRICS, WB, SCO, WTO, OECD, BTWC, ASEAN, APEC).

Since 2006, he leads the participation of the Russian Federation in international cooperation and development assistance in the area of public health, especially in implementing IHR and fighting communicable diseases. In this capacity, he worked with more than 20 countries. During the last 10 years under the supervision of Dr Smolenskiy, Rospotrebnadzor implemented more than 20 programs to assist developing countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and South-East Asia in fighting infectious diseases and building their capacities to prevent and respond to outbreaks. He coordinated and was directly involved in the Russian participation in response to the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, led assistance missions to Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Vietnam and other countries. In February 2020, he headed the Russian mission to China to conduct consultations on the disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-COV2.

His areas of expertise are: public health, IHR implementation, pandemic preparedness and response, global health security, vaccination, epidemic modeling and forecasting, biosecurity, outbreak rapid response teams and mobile labs.

Dr Smolenskiy served on the Review Committee regarding amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005).