Localizing websites using hreflang meta tags Despite clear differences, these dialects are generally mutually intelligible. Linguists roughly divide these dialects into three broad categories: Northern, Central and Southern. Given the vastness of the area in which Russian is spoken, it will come as no surprise that within Russian there exists countless regional dialects and sub-dialects. Before its dissolution, Russian was also the de facto official language of the Soviet Union. There are only about 200,000 words that make up the Russian language, many of which have more than one meaning.Īs well as being the official language of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Russian is also spoken as the main language of a number of minor or unrecognised territories throughout Eastern Europe, Central Asia and beyond.
Russian is one of the United Nations’ 6 official languages, as well as the language of the international space station.In addition to Russia, the Russian language is also spoken in 30 countries including Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus.Russian is spoken by over 164 million people as a first language, placing it at the 7th most spoken language in the world.