Russian, the official language of the former Soviet Union, remains the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikstan.  It is also still widely used in Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel.

Russia has over 258 million speakers worldwide, and is the most spoken native language in Europe.  It is the world’s seventh most spoken language by number of native speakers, and ninth by total number of speakers.  It is also one of two official languages aboard the International Space Station, an official language of the United Nations, and the fourth most widely used language on the Internet.