Since November 1951, Vladimir Buzaev has lived in Riga. His parents had already been residing in Latvia since 1946, working in various engineering positions, primarily at the Riga Carriage Building Plant. His father, Viktor Buzaev, served as the plant's director from 1970 to 1980. 

In 1968, V. Buzaev graduated from Riga Secondary School No. 1, and in 1973 he graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Latvian State University, specializing in Electrodynamics and Continuum Mechanics.

In 1982, he earned the degree of Candidate of Technical Sciences in Hydrogeology from the All-Union Research Institute for Water Supply, Sewerage, Hydraulic Engineering Structures and Engineering Hydrogeology (Moscow).

From 1972 onward, Buzaev worked professionally in the field of groundwater flow modelling. He is the author of several dozen scientific publications and water supply projects for nearly all of Latvia's major cities. He was compelled to discontinue this scientific work after being elected to the Saeima of Latvia in October 2002.

Buzaev began his public activities in 1988 by proposing the introduction of two official state languages in Latvia. He published this proposal, collected the first two hundred signatures in support of a petition, and submitted it to the Supreme Soviet of Latvia.

In December 1989, he was elected—out of thirteen alternative candidates—to the Riga City Council with the support of the political organization Centre for Democratic Initiative. He served as a city councillor until mid-1994. Following the elections to the newly established Riga City Council in May 1994, he was unable to stand as a candidate because he was a non-citizen of Latvia.

Since 1988, Buzaev has also been active as a political publicist, publishing several hundred articles in periodicals in Latvia and abroad.

Since 2004, he has periodically published monographs devoted to the legal and factual status of national minorities in Latvia.

In 1993, he became one of the founders of the socio-political organization Movement for Equal Rights and Social Justice in Latvia, which later evolved into the Equal Rights Party. The party subsequently joined the political alliance For Human Rights in a United Latvia, later becoming the For Human Rights in United Latvia Party, which was eventually renamed the Russian Union of Latvia.

Until 2001, Buzaev headed the party's department responsible for organizing mass public demonstrations. In 2001, he became the party's chairman; in 2005, co-chairman of its board; in 2007, chairman of the party council; and since 2009, a member of the party board.

In November 1998, he became an assistant to a deputy of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia. In February 1999, he was naturalized and became a citizen of the Republic of Latvia.

In March 2001, Buzaev was elected to the Riga City Council. From July 2001, he served as chairman of the governing For Human Rights in United Latvia Party faction in the council until receiving a parliamentary mandate in the autumn of 2002.

He served as a deputy of the For Human Rights in United Latvia Party parliamentary faction in the 8th Saeima (2002–2006) and the 9th Saeima (2006–2010).

Since 1993, Buzaev has been a member of the Latvian Human Rights Committee (LHRC). He served as the organization's co-chairman from 1994 to 2001 and again from 2011 onward.

As part of his work with the Latvian Human Rights Committee, Buzaev successfully represented the applicants before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in the landmark case concerning the pensions of Latvia's non-citizens, which resulted in a judgment in favour of the applicant in February 2009. He also participated in preparing an application to the Constitutional Court of Latvia concerning freedom of assembly, which resulted in a favourable ruling in November 2006.

Before the Constitutional Court, he also argued cases concerning compensation for occupational diseases (2010), the pensions of non-citizens (2011), and language requirements for members of local government councils (2012–2013).

From 2020 to 2025, Vladimir Buzaev served as a deputy of the Riga City Council representing the Russian Union of Latvia.