He was a trainee researcher at the Institute of Asian Peoples, and soon after became head of the Russian language courses at the Soviet Cultural Center in Taiz (1960-1971).
[3] In the final years of the Soviet Union, he was an advisor to the Office of the Middle East and North Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Referring to this circumstance, the KNB of Turkmenistan refused to return to Kulyýew his Russian foreign passport, which is the property of Russia.
He was brutally beaten near his home on the outskirts of Moscow in August 2003, in an attack he believed was ordered by agents of the Turkmen government.
During the interview Kulyýew claimed that following the failed coup of 25 November 2002 many former ministers, members of government and business leaders were arrested and tortured in Turkmenistan's jails.