Moscow Says 30 Million Russians Live Abroad
March 08, 2006
March 8, 2006 -- A Russian Foreign Ministry official says up to 30 million Russians are living outside their homeland, making the Russian diaspora one of the largest in the world.
Aleksandr Chepurin, who heads a Foreign Ministry department charged with policy on Russians abroad, said much of the diaspora comprises former Soviet citizens with Russian roots who ended up outside Russia when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
He estimated that Russians make up more than 20 percent of the population in the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Latvia, Estonia, and Ukraine.
He urged "some countries of the former Soviet Union" to protect Russian culture, language and education.
Russia accuses Estonia and Latvia of violating the rights of Russians who settled there in the Soviet period.
(AFP, RIA Novosti)