Russian Only Language in Russia Not at Risk of Dying Out, Academy of Sciences Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 10 – Vladimir Putin and Russian propagandists constantly say that Moscow is doing everything necessary so that the minority languages of the Russian Federation can not only survive but flourish, a claim that the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences has just demolished.

            In a new report, the institute says that of the 155 languages of the Russian Federation, only Russian (and its version for the deaf which it counts as a distinct language) is not at risk of dying out (echofm.online/news/institut-yazykoznaniya-ran-ischeznovenie-ne-grozit-tolko-dvum-yazykam-rossii-russkomu-i-russkomu-zhestovomu).

            Two of these languages Aleutian and Itelmen are down to a single speaker, the institute reports, and another eight currently have fewer than 10 speakers. That means that 15 or nearly 10 percent of Russia’s minority languages are already “on the verge of extinction” and another 39 are classed as seriously vulnerable.

            What the government is doing as of now, the institute warns, is insufficient to prevent this catastrophe and says that “in an ideal situation, every language in the country requires all that is currently being done for the Russian language,” a requirement that the Putin regime shows neither the readiness or willingness to do.

            In addition to the importance of this exposure of a Kremlin lie that the situation with its languages is not deteriorating but getting better, this new Academy of Sciences report will undoubtedly further energize non-Russian national movements to seek a radical change in their situation possibly by exiting from Moscow’s control.