The Centre for Egyptological Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (CESRAS) was established in November, 1999 by decree of the Presidium of the RAS. Previously it was the Department of Egyptology of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the RAS, founded in 1992. In 2000, an Autonomous Scientific Structural Unit was established in Cairo. The Unit is functioning as the permanent seat of Russian Egyptological operations in the Arab Republic of Egypt.

The main goal of the Centre is to carry out complex scientific research in the fields of history, culture, languages and religion of ancient, medieval, and modern Egypt. The research is based on  study of the literary sources and the data yielded in the course of CESRAS' archaeological field projects. In 1992 CESRAS took part in the archaeological excavations of the site Tell Ibrahim Awad. The Russian-Dutch mission has been working in a joint project aimed at the study of the early history of the Delta. From 1998 through 2006, in cooperation with the Institute of Egyptology and Coptology of Muenster University, CESRAS carried out the clearing and first scientific archaeological study and survey of  Theban Tomb 320, the famous “Cache of the Royal Mummies”. Since 2001 the Centre is conducting excavations at Memphis, Fayyum, Luxor, and Alexandria.

A very important area of the CESRAS' activity is the restoration, study and publication of  Coptic cultural heritage. In particular, since 1999, the Centre along with Russian, American, and Egyptian colleagues has been working on the study and restoration of Coptic icons. Since 2004 the Centre in collaboration with the Grabar Art Conservation Center and the SCA has been studying the history of the al-Mu‘allaqa Church of the Holy Virgin in Old Cairo and restoration of the internal decoration of the church. Since 1997 the Centre has taken part in the “Databank of Eastern-European Egyptology” project. The goal of the project is to gather, store and evaluate the data of Egyptian antiquities kept in the museum collections of Russia, CIS, Eastern European countries and Egypt.