Nikolay started his career at the age of 13 working in a farm in the Priozersk region, later - in the construction cooperative "Sodruzhestvo".

From 2000 to 2001 he worked as a chief specialist at the EPIcenter St. Petersburg Foundation for Economic and Political Research (headed by Igor Artemyev, now an assistant to the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation).

According to another version, Rybakov lost his post as head of the administration because he initiated an investigation, as a result of which the municipalities discovered violations in the organization of conscription.

[4] Rybakov was one of the organizers of the protests against the construction of Gazprom's planned headquarters, the 400 meter Okhta Center skyscraper, which would have towered over Saint Petersburg's historic centre (a World Heritage Site).

Rybakov had filed a complaint in court against the city government order to allow construction of the 400-meter-high office for Gazprom on the border of the historical centre.

Без срока давности») together with Ekaterina Sokirianskaia from Memorial (society) and Elena Vilenskaya («House of peace and non-violence»).

The journalist and human rights activist Natalia Estemirova, assassinated in 2009, and an actor Aleksey Devotchenko were contributing to the movie.

In 1999, he was one of the chiefs of the headquarters for the election of Sergei Stepashin to the State Duma, who ran as a candidate from the Yabloko party in one of the districts in St. Petersburg.

As a result of the elections, Sergei Stepashin, gaining 49% of the votes, won the electoral district of Gennady Seleznev, who at that time was the chairman of the State Duma.

In 2012, Rybakov was working as head of the headquarters for the election of Grigory Yavlinsky for the post of President of Russia in St. Petersburg.

On March 5, 2020, he applied to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation with an administrative claim, in which he challenged the order of President Vladimir Putin on organizing an all-Russian vote on amendments to the Constitution.

The procurator of Saint Petersburg initiated proceedings on electoral fraud but the investigation was not conducted properly and was closed.

[9] In connection with the appeal of a significant part of the Yabloko members demanding the re-election of the governing bodies, the question of confidence in Nikolai Rybakov, as the chairman of the party, was also put to the vote.

[10] After the release of the Kholod material, which reported on the accusations of Alexander Kobrinsky, a member of the Yabloko party, of sexual harassment of female students,[34] and Kobrinsky filed a lawsuit against the publication,[35] Rybakov published an official statement "Principle 'accused means guilty' is unacceptable".

Regarding the expulsion of 488 people from the Moscow branch, which caused a split, Rybakov stated that these were the consequences of the re-registration procedure, which is a “normal process” that took place in the party “tens and hundreds of times”,[39] noting also the competition of some excluded members with Yabloko in the elections, as well as the inadmissibility of bullying by some party members by others.

During a meeting of the party bureau dealing with expulsions, Rybakov stated that those being expelled had signed "lying" open letters, and that the exclusion was not mass and automatic.

[40] One of the excluded members invited to the meeting noted that he was not given the opportunity to familiarize himself with the draft decision on his expulsion, Rybakov responded to such a request with the statement “You cannot ask questions.

"[41] Speaking about the subsequent split of the party, Rybakov declared the public movement Yabloko "crooks and impostors", and predicted its collapse.

[42] On the air of the Morning program of the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station on December 8, 2021, Rybakov’s position on the situation with accusations of party member Alexander Kobrinsky of sexual harassment was criticized by the presenters.

Rybakov's commentary is given in the program: I think you know about the broadcast of Plushev and Felgenhauer, in which it was stated that only dishonorable people remained in the Yabloko party.

It was said about Svetlana Gannushkina, Valery Borshchev, Academician Arbatov, Nobel Prize winner Dmitry Muratov.

Then solve the problem within your team.According to the presenters, it was a public denunciation with a list of names and quotes of supposed supporters of Smart Voting, signed by Nikolai Rybakov together with Grigory Yavlinsky, Boris Vishnevsky, Lev Shlosberg and other members of the party bureau.

Previously, we thought that Yavlinsky was blown away, Rybakov - it’s generally not clear who he is, but there is Vishnevsky, he does it, he’s done well, Shlosberg is well done, he is an internal opposition.