Bishkek’s Promotion of Kyrgyz Language will Spark Flight of Russians and Make It More Difficult for Kyrgyz who Want to Work in Russian Federation

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Aug. 19 – Kyrgyzstan, which for many years has been noted for its relative tolerance of the use of Russian and hence viewed by Moscow as the most reliable ally in Central Asia, has now adopted a package of language laws which will boost the use of Kyrgyz and restrict the use of Russian.

            Russian commentator Aleksandr Shustov says that the new laws will accelerate the flight of ethnic Russians from Kyrgyzstan, exacerbate tensions between Kyrgyz and other language communities in Kyrgyzstan, and make it more difficult for Kyrgyz to work in the Russian Federation (ritmeurasia.ru/news--2025-08-19--jazykovaja-reforma-v-kirgizii-usilit-emigraciju-russkih-82232).

            All of this, he argues, will complicate the life of Kyrgyzstan by making its ethnic situation more similar to that of Tajikistan and reduce Russia’s influence in what many in Moscow had until now viewed as the country in Central Asia most closely allied with the Russian Federation.

            Since 1991, ethnic Russians in Kyrgyzstan has fallen from 916,600 to 282,800; but the decline will now accelerate, helping Russia demographically but leaving Kyrgyzstan in this respect like Tajikistan, for example, where the share of Russians is now less than a third of one percent – and where the census no longer provides a breakdown of the population by ethnicity.

            The new laws will mean that only a small minority of Kyrgyz will speak Russian in the future, down from the more than 80 percent who do now. That will complicate the lives of those who want to move to Russia as migrant workers and also relations between the titular nationality and other nations, such as the Uzbeks, who form an ever larger share of the Kyrgyz population.