In 1987 he led the Soviet part of the first international expedition along the Great Silk Road under the leadership of Dick Fisher. In 1988 he was involved in the scientific support of the «Aral-88» expedition. He was involved in scientific support of international television projects on the USSR for UNESCO, BBC (UK), ABC (USA), Asahi, NHK (Japan). In 1993 he founded an analytical group (Mercator Group) specializing in the production of electronic maps showing election results, crime growth, environmental crises and vodka consumption by region. The group also produced an electronic atlas of crisis situations for the Russian Security Council. On 1 April 2014, Oreshkin harshly criticized Russia’s foreign policy towards Ukraine in his blog on Ekho Moskvy radio. On 2 June 2014, he was recognised as a foreign agent.
