Currently, the Russian language is native for 130 million of citizens of the Russian Federation, 26.4 million residents of the CIS and the Baltic republics, and almost 7.4 million people living in the far abroad (first of all, Germany and other European countries, and the US and Israel) which accounts for a total of 163.
8 million people. Over 114 million people speak Russian as a second language (predominantly in the CIS and the Baltic countries) or foreign (in the countries of the far abroad). According to our estimates, by 2015 the number of native speakers of Russian will drop to 144 million (including Russia where it will drop to 120 million). Another 68 million people will use it as a second or foreign language.In terms of prevalence, the Russian language still ranks fourth in the world. The leaders are: English (it is estimated to be a native or second language for 500 million people and foreign for over 1 billion people) and Chinese (it is spoken as a native language by over 1.35 billion people). Spanish ranks third (it is spoken by about 360 million people including 335 million for whom it is native). In case the current trends continue to exist, the number of people speaking Russian to various extents will drop to 212 million already in 10 years from now and it will left behind by French (which is now spoken by about 270 million people), Hindi/Urdu (260 million), Arabic (230 million) and by 2025 when the number of Russian-speakers in different parts of the world will decease to approximately 152 million people (that is, it will reach the number of the beginning of the 20th century) it will be left behind by Portuguese (which is today spoken by over 190 million people) and Bengali (about 190 million).
The Russian language has huge inner potential for further development and for a rich cultural heritage. Nevertheless, Russian is the only language out of the 10 to 12 predominant world’s languages which has been losing its positions in all principal regions of the world in the course of the last fifteen years. This negative trend will continue to exist for the forthcoming 20 years unless effective measures will be taken to support the Russian language and culture inside the country, in the near and far abroad countries.