Ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states

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Wikipedia

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union (USSR) in December 1991, about 25 million ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states found themselves living outside of Russia. However, this number declined to less than 6 million today, excluding Ukraine in which ethnic Russian population is hard to estimate due to lack of a recent census.

All former Soviet citizens had a time window within which they could transfer their former Soviet citizenship to Russian citizenship.[citation needed] Where they did not exercise that choice, their resulting citizenship status outside Russia varied by state: from no perceivable change in status – as in Belarus – to becoming permanently resident "non-citizens" – as in Estonia and Latvia, which restricted citizenship to their pre-World War II citizens and their offspring (regardless of ethnic group) upon restoration of their independence in continuity with their sovereign identities prior to June 1940.

In June 2006 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a plan to introduce national policy aiming at encouraging ethnic Russian immigration to Russia.[1]

Map showing Ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states
Ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states (1994)
Country Number of
ethnic Russians		 Percent of
national population		 As of
(census data)
 Russia1105,579,17980.82021[2]
 Ukraine8,334,14117.32001[3]
 Kazakhstan2,963,93814.62025[4]
 Uzbekistan720,3242.12021[5]
 Belarus706,9927.52019[6]
 Latvia1434,24324.12025[7]
 Estonia1285,81921.02025[8]
 Kyrgyzstan272,8003.82025[9]
 Lithuania144,5005.02025[10]
 Turkmenistan114,4471.62022[11]
 Moldova275,3003.22024[12]
 Azerbaijan71,0460.72019[13]
 Tajikistan29,0000.32020[14]
 Georgia326,5860.72014[15]
 Armenia14,0740.52022[16]

1: Excluding the population for which data is unknown

2: Does not include Transnistria (2015 census: 138,072 Russians or 29.1% of the population)[17]

3: Does not include Abkhazia (2021 census: 22,303 Russians or 9.1% of the population)[18] or South Ossetia (2015 census: 610 Russians or 1.1% of the population)[19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Latvia: Ethnic Russians Divided On Moscow's Repatriation Scheme
  2. ↑ "НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ СОСТАВ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ". Archived from the original on 26 November 2025.
  3. ↑ "2001 | English version | Results | General results of the census | National composition of population". 2007-07-06. Archived from the original on 2007-07-06. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  4. ↑ "Population of the Republic of Kazakhstan by selected ethnic groups". 27 March 2025. Retrieved 25 November 2025.
  5. ↑ "Permanent population by national and / or ethnic group, urban / rural place of residence". data.egov.uz (in Russian). Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  6. ↑ "b49a6306ec95b5c2d851e897490581a3.pdf" (PDF). 2022-10-09.
  7. ↑ "Population by ethnicity at the beginning of year 1935 - 2025". Oficiālās statistikas portāls. Retrieved 2025-06-03.
  8. ↑ "RV0222U: POPULATION, 1 JANUARY by Year, Sex, County and Ethnic nationality".
  9. ↑ "КЫРГЫЗСТАН ЦИФРАЛАРДА / КЫРГЫЗСТАН В ЦИФРАХ" (PDF).
  10. ↑ "Rodiklių duomenų bazė - Oficialiosios statistikos portalas".
  11. ↑ "State Committee of Turkmenistan on Statistics". www.stat.gov.tm. Retrieved 2025-02-09.
  12. ↑ "Population and Housing Census". Population and Housing Census. 2025-02-11. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
  13. ↑ "Ethnic composition of Azerbaijan 2019". pop-stat.mashke.org. Retrieved 2025-06-15.
  14. ↑ "DISSEMINATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TAJIKISTAN POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS DATA 2020" (PDF).
  15. ↑ Circle. "2014 General Population Census Results - National Statistics Office of Georgia". www.geostat.ge. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
  16. ↑ "The Main Results of RA Census 2022 / Statistical Committee of the Republic of Armenia". www.armstat.am. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  17. ↑ "Ethnic composition of Transnistria 2015". pop-stat.mashke.org. Retrieved 2025-02-15.
  18. ↑ "Руководство". cgsra.org. Retrieved 2025-02-14.
  19. ↑ "Ethnic composition of Ossetia 2015". pop-stat.mashke.org. Retrieved 2025-02-14.