Ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union (USSR) in December 1991, about 25 million ethnic Russians in post-Soviet states found themselves living outside the Russian Federation.

Ethnic Russians in former Soviet Union states according to the most recent census. The Soviet Union was dissolved at the end of 1991.

All former Soviet citizens had a time window within which they could transfer their former Soviet citizenship to Russian citizenship. 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.

However, most people in practice found the "time window" concept not feasible, as the citizenship issue linked closely to the issue of owning property owned by the state before privatization. For many people, a change of citizenship would actually mean relocating and leaving behind everything - or most of what they had previously owned or been able to access.

As of 2014 the largest ethnic Russian diaspora populations outside Russia live in the United States and in the "near abroad" countries. The populations involved include those in: Ukraine (about 8 million), Kazakhstan (about 3.8 million),[1] the United States (about 3 million), Belarus (about 780,000), Uzbekistan (about 650,000) Kyrgyzstan (about 360,000)[2] and Latvia (about 556,422).[3]

In June 2006 Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a plan to introduce national policy aiming at encouraging ethnic Russian immigration to Russia.[4]

Country	Number of ethnic Russians	Percent of national population	As of (census data)
Ukraine	8,334,141	17.2	2001
Belarus	785,084	8.3	2009
Uzbekistan	750,000	2.3	2017[b]
Kazakhstan	3,619,002	20.20	2017[5]
Georgia	26,586	0.7	2014[a]
Azerbaijan	119,300	1.35	2009
Lithuania	139,507	4.8	2015
Moldova	111,726	4.1	2014
Latvia	487,250	25.2	2018
Kyrgyzstan	364,500	6.2	2015[6]
Tajikistan	34,838	0.5	2010
Armenia	11,862	0.4	2011
Turkmenistan	297,319	6.7	1995[b]
Estonia	328,864	24.9	2018

^{^} Does not include Abkhazia (2011 census: 22,077 Russians or 9.1% of the population) or South Ossetia (2007 estimate: 2,100 Russians or 3.0% of the population).

^{^} In Turkmenistan, there were estimated to be at most 150,000 ethnic Russians as of 2007, or under 2% of the population. In Uzbekistan the same year, the Russian population stood at some 800,000 people or under 4% of the country.[7]