In 1994, he graduated from Saratov State agricultural university (Russian: Саратовский институт механизации сельского хозяйства).

From 1996 to 2005 he was the head of Saratov Oblast’s Khvalynsky District, the birthplace of Vyacheslav Volodin, the future First Deputy of the Presidential Administration of Russia and Speaker of the State Duma.

[3] On April 2, 2012, Dmitry Medvedev, the then President of Russia, requested the Saratov Oblast Duma to appoint Valery Radaev as Governor of the region.

Radaev is seen as the protégé of former deputy head of the presidential staff Vyacheslav Volodin by being his fellow countryman.

[8] In December 2022 the EU sanctioned Valery Radayev in relation to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.