In 1984, he graduated from the "Red Flag" school for KGB officers with a degree in higher professional education and knowledge of the Persian language.
In the 1980s, Ratnikov went on a business trip to Afghanistan as an adviser of KHAD, took part in the hostilities, awarded orders and medals.
Ratnikov has researched telepathy, clairvoyance, hypnosis, applied psychology, parapsychology, telekinesis, astrology etc.
Working in state research institutes and private laboratories, he conducted secret experiments for war on extrasensory perception between intelligence services of the CIA and the KGB.
He is a member of the Committee of Commerce and Industry Chamber of Business Security and the head of the Energy-information laboratory (research in the field of parapsychology) of the Academy of the National Association of bodyguards (abbreviation Russian: НАСТ) In December 2006, Ratnikov told Rossiyskaya Gazeta that his mind-reading work revealed that Madeleine Albright "was indignant that Russia held the world's largest reserves of natural resources.