The State Duma in the second and third readings adopted a law restricting the use of foreign words in cases where Russian is used as the state language. This was reported on the website of the State Duma.
By law, authorities and officials are obliged to use Russian as the state language in their work, and Russian is also mandatory for office work in organizations of any form of ownership. An exception will be made for words that “have no commonly used analogues in the Russian language and the list of which is contained in standard dictionaries.”
The law passed its first reading in December 2022. The explanatory note to the document said that the adoption of such a law would complete the “legal registration of the status of the Russian language as the state language.” The document introduces such concepts as “normative dictionaries, normative grammars and normative reference books that fix the norms of the modern Russian literary language”, and will ensure control over the quality of the preparation of a “single corpus” of grammars, dictionaries, reference books, its authors noted.
The list of standard dictionaries will be approved by the government on the basis of proposals from the government commission on the Russian language.
The law adopted by the State Duma in the third reading amends the Federal Law “On the State Language of the Russian Federation”. In particular, it will say that Russian is the state language of Russia “as the language of the state-forming people, which is part of the multinational union of equal peoples of the Russian Federation.”
In addition to foreign words, when using the Russian language as the state language, it is prohibited to use words and expressions that “do not correspond to the norms of the modern Russian literary language (including obscene language)”. It will be forbidden to use foreign words “when registering the addresses of senders and recipients of telegrams and postal items” sent across Russia, as well as in postal money transfers.
Source: Rosbalt
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