On August 31, 2009, Prof Dr Valery I. Rudoi (1940-2009), leading researcher of the Department of South and South Eastern Asian Studies of the IOM RAS, died  in St Petersburg.

His entire life's aim was to revive the St Petersburg academic buddhology and run the complex research into one of the fundamental treatices of classical Buddhological philosophy, Abhidharmakosha by Vasubandhu. This important work resulted in translation and comprehensive study of the treatise's chapters 1-6. Moreover, Prof Dr V.Rudoi was an author and initiator of a number of theoretical and methodological monographs and papers on the study of Budhist ideology, written both by him and his disciples and colleagues.

The colleagues of Prof Dr V.Rudoi express deep sorrow at his death.