From his early years Potapov showed interest to ethnography of his native land, traveling to study the culture of Altaians with a known Altaist Andrey Anokhin.

Following his graduation Potapov was appointed a head of scientific department in an Uzbek research institute, leading ethnographic expeditions to various areas of Uzbekistan.

After completing his postgraduate study, Potapov headed the Siberia and ethnography department of the State Ethnographical Museum of the USSR peoples in the Kunstkamera and conducted research work at the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union's History of Material Culture Institute.

Potapov focussed on pre-Islam beliefs of peoples of Central Asia, ethnogenesis, ethnographic materials, archival, written and archeological sources.

Potapov created a scientific school studying the peoples of Siberia, especially the Altai-Sayan region, and prepared 48 PhD in sciences.

Potapov joined the names of Nicholas Poppe (1970), Vera Tsintsius (1972), Andrei Kononov (1976), Nikolai Baskakov (1980), Aleksandr Shcherbak (1992) who were awarded "PIAK Gold medal" for Altaic studies.