Malygin was born on 19 June 1950, the son of Ardalion Malygin [ru], a party worker and employee of the Soviet state security organs, who reached the rank of lieutenant general. Vladimir Malygin studied at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, graduating in 1972 and beginning work for the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[1][2] His work included postings within the central apparatus of the Ministry, which after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 became the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and abroad. During the Soviet and later Russian periods he worked in the embassies in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and Cyprus.[2] He undertook further studies at the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, graduating in 1989.[1][2] On 18 September 1996 he was awarded the diplomatic rank of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Envoy 2nd class.[3]
In 2000 Malygin was appointed Deputy Director of the Ministry's General Secretariat, followed by a posting from 2003 as consul general in Edinburgh.[1] He held this post until 2009, having received the diplomatic rank of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Envoy 1st class, on 29 December 2005.[4] Between 2009 and 2012 he was Deputy Director of the Ministry's Department of Security, and then from 2012 until 2014 Malygin was consul general in Klaipėda, Lithuania.[1] He then became Deputy Director of the Ministry's Second European Department in June 2014, before being appointed Ambassador of Russia to Malta on 12 December 2014.[1][5] He served in this role until his retirement on 29 October 2021.[6]