Aleksei Valeryevich Nikolaev (Russian: Алексей Валерьевич Николаев; born 1 August 1971 in Moscow) is a former Russian football referee.

He has been a FIFA international referee from 2007 to 2017.

[1] In 2011, he was selected for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico.

[2] Nikolaev has also officiated in 2010 World Cup qualifiers.

[3] He works in the Russian Football Union refereeing committee since retiring as a referee.