Russian
Russian is the official
language of Russia. It was the language of common use of the Russian Empire and
the Soviet Union. It is also known as Great Russian and forms, with Belarusian
and Ukrainian, the eastern branch of the Slavic languages. Russian includes
three groups of dialects: northern, southern, and central, the last named a
transitional group combining northern and southern features. The standard
Russian is based on a central dialect of Moscow. Russian
has nearly 300,000,000 speakers, of which 2/3 are first language
speakers.
The principal countries of usage
include; Russia, United States, Canada, Israel, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia,
Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrghystan, Lithuania, Moldova, Latvia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Germany, Norway, Poland, Mongolia, Bulgaria,
China,, Uruguay & Czech Republic.
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![Russia - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/rs-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Germany - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/gm-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Georgia - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/gg-flag.gif){kind=small}
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![Kyrghystan - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/kg-flag.gif){kind=small}
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![Kazakhstan - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/kz-flag.gif){kind=small}
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![Ukraine - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/up-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Mongolia - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/mg-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Azerbaijan - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/aj-flag.gif){kind=small}
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![Canada - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/ca-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Uruguay - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/uy-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Bulgaria - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/bu-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Uzbekistan - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/uz-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Moldova - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/ml-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Israel - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/is-flag.gif){kind=small}
![Czech Republic - Click for Information]](https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/ez-flag.gif){kind=small}