Grinin graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1971 and commenced diplomatic work, serving at the Soviet Embassy in West Germany from 1973 to 1980.

After his posting to West Germany, he returned to Moscow and attended the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

Grinin graduated in 1982 and participated in Soviet-American negotiations on disarmament and arms control in Geneva until 1986.

[1][2] From 1994 to 1996, Grinin was director of the Fourth European Department at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He was appointed by President Boris Yeltsin as Ambassador of Russia to Austria in 1996, and held the post in Vienna until 2000.