The Russian language is the language of interethnic communication and the greatest asset of the CIS countries; it cannot be lost. President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko stated this at the Commonwealth summit in Bishkek.
Lukashenko noted that the heads of the CIS states speak Russian well and do not feel any problems, while young people in the republics speak it worse and worse.
“This [владение русским языком] our greatest asset. <…> You cannot lose the language of interethnic communication, as it is called. And then, I don’t understand at all, why should they lose him?” said he (quote from BelTA).
The Russian language is not a Russian language, but “our common language,” Lukashenko added. According to him, there is “a part of Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Tajiks and so on” in it, since previously everyone was in a single state.
October 13 in Bishkek CIS countries signed Agreement on the establishment of the International Organization for the Russian Language, which will, among other things, support education in the language and assist in the training of scientific and teaching personnel in the areas of “Russian language and literature” and “Russian as a foreign language”. According to the executive committee of the Commonwealth, the initiative belongs to the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. In addition, a statement was adopted on the support and promotion of the Russian language as a language of interethnic communication.
