Kremlin Fails to Understand Ethnic Russians in Baltic Countries Won’t Move to Russia For Money Alone, ‘Krisis Kopilka’ Portal Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 15 – Because Putin and those around him are overwhelmingly motivated by money, they tend to assume that everyone else is motivated in a similar way and adopt policies based on that assumption. But the Krizis-Kopilka portal argues that assumption is false and frequently gets the Kremlin into trouble.

            The independent portal which focuses on problems facing the Putin regime gives as an example Moscow’s approach to trying to attract ethnic Russians living in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, an approach which focuses on money alone and which up to now has failed as a result (https://krizis-kopilka.ru/archives/104598).

            To boost the number and share of ethnic Russians in the population of the Russian Federation, the Putin regime has set up a program to encourage those it calls compatriots to “return” to Russia where they are told they will do better economically than they are doing in the countries where they now live.

            But the ethnic Russians living in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania aren’t buying that argument. On the one hand, Krizis-Kopilka says, they live in countries which compare themselves with the standard of living in Western Europe and not with Russia and thus are not attracted to Moscow’s call for financial reasons.

            But on the other – and this is far more significant – ethnic Russians living in the Baltic countries do not see themselves as a diaspora and thus do not view the Russian Federation as their homeland. Instead, at present, most of the ethnic Russians in these three countries were born there and are more likely to view them rather than Russia as their homelands.

            Ethnic Russians in the Baltic countries often complain about the policies of these countries regarding them, but they do so as citizens or at least long-term residents rather than as Russian compatriots, however much Moscow thinks of them in that way and appeals to them on financial grounds.

            The clearest evidence that Moscow’s approach isn’t working with the ethnic Russians of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania is that in 2023, the last year for which there is comparable data, only 640 people moved from the Baltic countries to the Russian Federation, somewhat less than moved to Germany alone and far less than moved to other European countries.

            In short, although Krizis-Kopilka doesn’t say so, the ethnic Russians of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have overwhelmingly become “Baltic Russians,” a group which speaks Russian, is concerned about how it is treated, but identifies not as part of Putin’s Russian nation. Because he doesn’t understand that, this shift in identity is likely to continue to intensify. 

One in Three of Languages Used in Russian Schools are at Risk of Disappearing and All except Russian May Do So as Well, Moscow Scholars Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 15 – Twenty-four languages out of 76 used for instruction in Russian schools are now at risk of dying out because those who know these languages don’t use them on a regular basis or are themselves passing from the scene, according to Russian linguists and other scholars.

            This disturbing fact is reported by Vedomosti journalist Yekaterina Dorofeyeva on the basis of an examination of data from the education ministry, the Federal Institute of Native Languages, and the Institute of Linguistics (vedomosti.ru/society/articles/2025/09/15/1139222-tret-prepodavaemih-v-shkolah-rf-yazikov-nahoditsya-pod-ugrozoi-ischeznoveniya).

            And it is a useful reminder to those concerned about the survival of the languages and peoples of the Russian Federation that securing instruction in a language, as important as that is, doesn’t provide the guarantee that the language and the nation which speaks it will long survive, at least in the opinion of Russian academic experts.

            Other non-Russian languages now used in school instruction are at risk of falling into the category of dying languages. Andrey Kibrik, director of the Institute of Linguistics, says that “all languages except Russian” have ever fewer people who know their native languages and many more who already kna\\ow only Russian.

            Children of these nations often come to school with no knowledge of their native language and in fact knowing and using Russian instead. “From the point of view of preserving linguistic diversity,” Kibrik continues, the situation in Russia today is “negative,” despite the Russian Constitution’s specification that the state must work to keep such diversity alive.

            To be sure, the Academy of Sciences expert says, “the chances to preserve many languages remain; but for this it will be necessary to invest resources and conduct consultations with experts,” steps that Moscow is not now taking to the necessary extent.

            There are many take-aways from this report, but three are especially important: First, those who want to preserve their native languages must focus not just on the languages used in schools but on that used in early childhood. Second, no non-Russian language is safe from disappearing if Moscow continues its current policies.

            And third – and this is likely to be the most important – Russian experts despite their implicit criticism of Moscow’s policies are telling the Kremlin that the non-Russian languages are all likely to disappear in the coming decades, a message that means Putin and his successors will count on that rather than meeting constitutional requirements and trying to stop it.

Moscow Expanding Network of Central Asian Branches of Russian Universities, Likely to Save Money Now Spent on Bringing Central Asian Students to Russia Itself

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 15 – Moscow is dramatically expanding the network of branches of Russian Universities in Central Asia and the Caucasus, increasing their number in Uzbekistan alone over the last three years from four to 14, a move that allows Moscow to continue to use this form of Soviet powers at less cost than bringing Central Asians to Russia.

            At present, analysts say, it costs Moscow six to eight thousand US dollars per student per year to bring Central Asians to universities in the Russian Federation. Training them at Russian schools located in the region is much less expensive and is now a growth industry (bugin.info/detail/filialy-rossiiskikh-vuzov/ru).

            That suggests that Moscow plans to reduce the number of scholarships given to Central Asians to study in Russia itself by increasing the number of students studying in branches of Russian universities in their homelands. At present, there are some 60,000 Uzbeks in Russian universities in Russia, but only 10,000 in Russian branches in Uzbekistan.

New Institute Set Up in Vladivostok to Guide Spatial Development of Russian Far East

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept.15 – The Far Eastern Federal University and the Primorsky Kray government have established an Institute for the Territorial Development of the Far East, a body that its organizers say will serve as think tank for the cities, regions, and republics of the Russian Federation east of Lake Baikal.

            How much it will be able to achieve in that regard is still an open question, but the formation of such an institution in the region concerned rather than in Moscow almost certainly means that regional scholars will gain a seat at the table that they have long wanted but not in fact had (sibmix.com/?doc=18093).

            Among the new institute’s first projects, its organizers say, will be the launch of a master’s degree program in urban planning, something that if successful would mean that cities in that enormous region would more adequately reflect the characteristics and needs of that area rather than be the result of the application of some all-Russian template. 

Yerevan Removes Picture of Mount Ararat from Passport Entry Stamps

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 15 – Yerevan has now dropped a drawing of Mount Ararat from the stamps it puts in the passports of those crossing Armenia’s national borders. The picture of that mountain which lies within the borders of Turkey was first put on those stamps two decades ago. That offended many Turks and its removal will please them, although infuriate many Armenians.

            Yerevan has taken this step as its relations with Ankara have warmed and at a time when Azerbaijan has demanded that it amend the Armenian constitution by dropping all references to Armenian interest in lands linked to Armenia in the past but now on the territories of other countries (echofm.online/news/armeniya-uberet-izobrazhenie-gory-ararat-s-pogranichnyh-shtampov).

            Mount Ararat is an important symbol for Armenians, and it remains on the state coat of arms. But its removal from the passport stamps, an action taken without fanfare, will undoubtedly help Yerevan develop better relations not only with Turkey but also with Azerbaijan.

            This action brings to mind an earlier discussion of Armenia’s interest in Mount Ararat as a symbol. When Soviet officials first met with Turkish ones after 1917, the Turkish side complained that Moscow was allowing Armenia to use Mount Ararat as a national symbol even though it was at that time too on the territory of a foreign state.

            The Soviet delegates responded by saying in what has become an anecdote with the additional virtue of being true that Turkey had no place to complain because after all, the Turkish national flag featured the moon, a place hardly within the borders at any time of a Turkish national state. 

Putin Allies’ Attacks on Khrushchev’s Secret Speech Open the Way to Criminalization of Those who Backed End of USSR, Tsipko Warns

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 15 – It is no surprise and really of little interest that the KPRF has denounced criticism of Khrushchev for his 1956 secret speech attacking Stalin, Aleksandr Tsipko says. Communists have done that before. But it should be a matter of near universal concern that Putin’s close allies are following the KPRF course.

            In the latest exacerbation of Putin’s own re-Stalinization efforts, the senior Russian commentator says, the attacks by those close to Putin on Khrushchev’s secret speech open the way to the criminalization of the actions of those who supported the end of communist rule in the USSR and that country’s disintegration (ng.ru/ideas/2025-09-15/7_9338_ideals.html).

            What the KPRF and now the Putin regime have done, he says, is to suggest that any attack on Stalin is an attack on the Soviet state, something that the Kremlin’s own single flow of Russian history conception means that it is anti-Soviet and Russophobic and thus should be treated as a crime.

            Suggesting as the KPRF and the Putin regime have done that Khrushchev’s criticism represented not only an attack on the state but also opened the way for its demise is not only a complete distortion of the historical record but opens the way to the kind of crimes against the people that Stalin himself has been justifiably condemned for. 

Chinese Restaurants Now Found in Almost All Settlements in Russian Far East, Zyuenko Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 13 – Chinese restaurants are now found in almost all settlements in the Russian Far East and often are the only place in the smallest villages where Russians can celebrate major events like birthdays and marriages, according to Ivan Zyuenko, who was born in that region and now works as a specialist on China at MGIMO in Moscow.

            Almost all these restaurants, known locally as chifanki, a corrupted translation of the Chinese “to east rice,” were set up in the 1990s to handle the influx of Chinese into that region. Gradually, they opened up to Russians and now occupy an important niche in the life of Far Easterners (profile.ru/abroad/dalnevostochnyj-fjuzhn-kak-kitajskaya-kuhnya-stanovitsya-russkoj-vozle-frontira-1753647/).

            The most successful of these have adapted their offerings to Russian tastes, eliminating the use of certain spices, adding more salads, and so on, and to Russian conditions by providing pick up and delivery of food, services that make them a staple of Russian life in that region, the Chinese specialist says.

            He adds that few Russians try to prepare Chinese food at home, but he notes that Russians in the Far East now use far more soy sauce than those in any other part of the Russian Federation. One indication of the influence of Chinese restaurants in the region is that they have successfully countered the appearance of Uzbek restaurants there.

            Another sign of the strength of this soft Chinese occupation is that there has not been the spread of Russian cuisine and restaurants in the other direction. While there was once a booming Russian restaurant industry when Russian emigres dominated Harbin, that largely disappeared. And a burst of interest in Russian food in the 1950s long ago burned out.

            Indicative of this is that Chinese specialists on Russia have told him that they long to eat the Russian food they consumed while students in Moscow but currently have no chance of doing so because there are no Russian restaurants and so much wait until they visit Russia for academic conferences or other meetings.