Admiral Sergei Iosifovich Avakyants (Russian: Серге́й Ио́сифович Авакя́нц, Armenian: Սերգեյ Իոսիֆի Ավագյանց; b.

Avakyants was born on 6 April 1957 in Yerevan, Armenia as the son of an Armenian naval officer and a Russian mother.

He graduated from Nakhimov Naval School in 1980 and took the Higher Special Officer Classes of the Navy from 1989 to 1991.

He served in the Northern Fleet and commanded the missile and gunnery section of the cruiser Admiral Yumashev.

[3][4] On 21 April 2023 he was removed from his position as commander of the Pacific fleet, and Putin's envoy Yury Trutnev announced that Avakyants will head a new organization that will oversee military pilots' centers of sports training and patriotic education.