[2] Rubakov was among the best known of contemporary Russian physical theorists,[3][4] notable for his studies of the cosmological effects of gauge interactions and for the development of novel ideas of space-time and gravity.

Rubakov pointed out such a monopole would induce proton decay, leaving an observable footprint in the form of electron neutrinos.

[5] Rubakov's paper with Shaposhnikov and Vadim Kuzmin on the effect of electroweak non-conservation of baryon and lepton numbers at high temperatures is considered fundamental to modern theory about the early universe.

[11] In 1999 the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded Rubakov and Kuzmin the Friedmann Prize "for a series of works on the formation of the baryon asymmetry of the universe".

[12] He received the 2003 ITEP Pomeranchuk Prize "for pioneering contribution [sic] to developing and novel application of nonperturbative methods in field theory".

[16] The award was presented as part of a celebration of 50 years of teaching and research in particle physics at Karlsruhe, at which Rubakov gave a lecture entitled "Towards understanding the origin of inhomogeneities in the Universe" .