Graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1988) and the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1995)

Khovaev has the highest diplomatic rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. He has been awarded state, government and departmental awards and distinctions.

Has been employed in the diplomatic service since 1988.

Worked at the Consulate General in Vũng Tàu, Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1988-1992); in two international missions in the former Yugoslavia (International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia mission in Serbia and Montenegro in 1996 and OSCE mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1997-1998), at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Turkey (1999-2003).

2005-2010 – Minister-Counselor of the Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

2010-2015 – Deputy Director of the Third Asian Department of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

2015-2020 – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the Republic of the Philippines and concurrently to the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia.

July 2021-present – Ambassador-at-large, Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

April 2023-present – Special Representative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Armenia-Azerbaijan normalization process.

Speaks English, Vietnamese and French.