Stepanova/Bukin teamed up in 2006. She was a single skater before and moved from St. Petersburg to Moscow to take up ice dance. Bukin is the son of 1988 Olympic Ice Dance Champion Andrei Bukin. Stepanova names two-time World Champions Albena Denkova/Maxim Staviski (BUL) and Ekaterina Rubleva/Ivan Shefer (RUS) as her idols in skating. Bukin looks up to Natalia Bestemianova/Andrei Bukin and his mother Elena Vasiuk, who also was an ice dancer. He and his fiancée Aliona Samarskaia welcomed a baby boy, Artem, in January 2022.