Ryszard Petru studied at the Faculty of Computer Science and Management of the Wrocław University of Technology,[5][6] and graduated from the Warsaw School of Economics.

[6] During the second year of his studies at the WSE, he became an assistant of the Democratic Union MP Władysław Frasyniuk.

[6] On the recommendation of his lecturer Leszek Balcerowicz, Petru began working for the Center for Social and Economic Research.

[7][8] From 2001 to 2004, Petru worked as an economist for the Polish and Hungarian affairs at the World Bank,[6] dealing with the reform of public finances, regional policy and investment climate.

[10] Between 2011 and 2014, he was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, responsible for the area of Polish small and medium-size private companies.

[15] From February to March 2014, Petru was the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Polish State Railways.

[19] He worked as an expert and co-author with Grzegorz Kasdepke on two children's books explaining the ins and outs of economics, published by the National Centre of Culture.

[24][25] Among people involved in that process were: an activist and former businessman Wadim Tyszkiewicz (Mayor of Nowa Sól),[26][27] and Paweł Rabiej.

He resided in Dubna, Moscow Oblast, where his father and mother worked for the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR, Russian: Объединённый институт ядерных исследований, ОИЯИ).