Aleksei Valeryevich Nikolaev (; born 1 August 1971 in Moscow) is a former Russian football referee. He has been a FIFA international referee from 2007 to 2017. In 2011, he was selected for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Mexico. Nikolaev has also officiated in 2010 World Cup qualifiers.
He works in the Russian Football Union refereeing committee since retiring as a referee.