There are an estimated 279 million speakers (native plus non-native) of Russian. That puts Russian in fifth place on the list of languages spoken by the most people, trailing only Mandarin, English, Hindi, and Spanish.
You will hear Russian spoken in Russia, the old Soviet Union and many communities in North America
It is the major and most used Slavic language of the world
120 million people in Eastern Europe and Asia learnt Russian as their second language
Russia is the world's largest country. Stretching across two continents, it is almost double the size of either the United States or China. Found within that huge land mass is a wide diversity of peoples, religions, climatic and geographic conditions.
Russia is in economic crisis. Yet its vast resources and highly educated population suggest that it is a country of great economic potential. Boom or bust, the size of Russia alone suggests that its economic course will have global repercussions.
Russia also the Russian Federation is a transcontinental country extending over much of northern Eurasia. It is a semi-presidential republic comprising 83 federal subjects.
