In 2002 he graduated from the Faculty of Psychology of the V. G. Belinsky Penza State Pedagogical University (now Penza State University) and moved to Moscow, where he received a master's degree in sociology at MSSES in 2003.

In 2007, he graduated from graduate school of the Higher School of Economics and obtained a Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D) degree in sociology by defending a thesis on "Framing Theory as a Method for Sociological Analysis of Everyday Life".

[3] Since 2011, he has served as the Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies at the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Sociology and Head of the Department of Theoretical Sociology and Epistemology at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration.

[4] According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Vakhstayn has migrated to Israel before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[5] On 22 April 2022, Russian Ministry of Justice included Vakhstayn in its "foreign agents" list.