File:Russophone.svg

Summary
Due to the status of the Soviet Union as a super power, Russian gained a great political importance in the second half of the 20th century. It is one of the official languages of the United Nations. All astronauts working in the International Space Station are required to master Russian.
 * 1) Dark blue= Russian language has official status.
 * 2) Mid blue= Russian language has official status, but lower than the state.
 * 3) Light blue= Russian language has no official status, but is known with much of the population.

Nations in which the Russian language is spoken officially or regionally. Date	June 2009 Author: Wiki Commons User:NuclearVacuum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Russophone.svg