It occurs as a primary mineral phase associated with metasomatism in a sulfur deficient reducing environment.

In the type locality it occurs with uraninite, molybdenite, galena, zircon and wulfenite.

[2] Tugarinovite was first described for an occurrence in the Lenskoye molybdenum–uranium deposit in the Amurskaya Oblast, Far-Eastern Region, Russia.

It was named for geochemist Ivan Alekseevich Tugarinov of the Vernadskii Institute in Moscow.

[2][3] In addition to its type locality in Russia it has been reported from the Allende meteorite in Chihuahua, Mexico, the Nansei Archipelago of Japan and Bohemia in the Czech Republic.