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( Russophone)
A Russophone (or russophone; Russian ???????????????, ?????????????, russkogovoryashchy, russkoyazychny, also Russian-speaking) is literally a speaker of the Russian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with Russian language regardless of ethnic and territorial distinctions. The largest and most populous Russophone country is Russia, where the language originates from. There are sizable Russophone communities in many neighbouring countries that were parts of the former Soviet Union, of which Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Estonia and Latvia. Additionally, there are large Russophone immigrant communities in Israel and various parts of the United States, Canada and Australia. There are an estimated 280 million Russophones worldwide. Russophony in the post-Soviet states is a controversial phenomenon. Throughout Russia and the former Soviet states, the languages of many different ethnic groups were suppressed by Russification, as Russian attained its status as a de facto language that unified the Soviet nation and was used exclusively in all official and interstate affairs. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union this situation was reversed in the countries of the "Near abroad" (??????? ?????????, blizhneye zarubezhye) — the term used in Russia for the post-Soviet states — and the use of Russian was discouraged, with the notable exceptions of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan where Russian remains today an official language. The breakaway republics of Abkhazia (Georgia), South Ossetia (Georgia), and Transnistria (Moldova) have also declared Russian as official in the territories under their control.
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