In 2001, the Russian Federation signed the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, but did not ratify it¹⁾. Since March 16, 2022, in light of the invasion of Ukraine, the Committee of Ministers decided that the Russian Federation would no longer be a member of the Council of Europe with immediate effect ²⁾. This means that the signed and ratified treaties of the Council of Europe no longer apply.

In 1996, the Russian Federation signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and in 1998, the Framework Convention was ratified. In the first report by the Russian Federation, it is stated that “more than 170 peoples” live within the country³⁾. Since March 16, 2022, in light of the invasion of Ukraine, the Committee of Ministers decided that the Russian Federation would no longer be a member of the Council of Europe with immediate effect ⁴⁾. This means that the signed and ratified treaties of the Council of Europe no longer apply.

During the Tsarist period (1721-1917), despite a level of autonomy, conditions for minority languages were difficult and some faced extreme restrictions. Revolutionaries had different ideas on minorities however before and after the Russian Revolution (1917-1923) the USSR (1922-1991), despite having a centralized governance, implemented the revolutionary ideas of more autonomy and right to education in own languages for certain minorities. In contradiction of these supported nation-building processes, other minorities were forced to relocate before and during the WWII, and became significantly weakened or eliminated as a people ^{5) 6)}. After WWII, the emphasis on Russian continued and minority languages became subjects rather than languages of instruction. Afterwards, the ideal of united Soviet people with a common language was dominant, and Russian became the standard language of instruction, with a decrease from 47 languages of instruction in 1960 to 17 languages in 1982. In the last decade of the USSR, ethnic autonomies sought more or full sovereignity (parade of sovereignties), and after the fall of the USSR, laws on language were often the first to be drawn up by such autonomies. The emphasis on language after the USSR also shows in the Law on the Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation (1991) and the Constitution of the Russian Federation of 1993.
_{Minority Language Rights in the Russian Federation: The End of a Long Tradition? ⁷⁾.}

Languages are covered by the Russian Constitution under Chapter 3, Federal Structure, Article 68:

1. The Russian language shall be a state language on the whole territory of the Russian Federation.
2. The Republics shall have the right to establish their own state languages. In the bodies of state authority and local self-government, state institutions of the Republics they shall be used together with the state language of the Russian Federation.
3. The Russian Federation shall guarantee to all of its peoples the right to preserve their native language and to create conditions for its study and development.

The Russian Federation recognizes 22* ethnic republics, which can appeal to this Art 68 section 2 and 3: Republic of Adygea, Altai Republic, Republic of Bashkortostan, Republic of Buryatia, Chechen Republic, Chuvash Republic, Republic of Crimea, Republic of Dagestan, Republic of Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Republic of Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkess Republic, Republic of Karelia, Republic of Khakassia, Komi Republic, Mari El Republic, Republic of Mordovia, Republic of North Ossetia–Alania, Sakha Republic, Republic of Tatarstan, Tuva Republic, and Udmurt Republic.

Native languages are also covered in the Constitution under Chapter 2, Rights and Freedoms of Man and Citizen, Article 26:

1. Everyone shall have the right to determine and indicate his nationality. No one may be forced to determine and indicate his or her nationality.
2. Everyone shall have the right to use his or her native language, to a free choice of the language of communication, upbringing, education and creative work.

_{*note that the Russian Federation includes the Crimea in this list, wich was annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The majority (100) of the UN state members does not recognize the Crimea as part of the Russian Federation (11 member states do) ⁸⁾}

The framework for Russian legislation concerning education is based on a three-tier curriculum, with a mandatory federal part, a national-regional part mandated by the federal subjects, and a variable part which can be filled in by individual schools⁹⁾. However, the influence on national-regional tier is under pressure, since the Amendment 2007.

The possibility on education in native languages is further clarified in the Law on the Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation (1991, amended in 1998 and 2002¹⁰⁾). Article 9 (2) of this law states that everybody can receive basic general education in the native language, and has the possibility to choose the language of instruction, within the limits of the education system¹¹⁾. Russian federal law on minority language remains rather ambiguous with the final part of that sentence.

What is more, this one example that shows the difficulty to determine current minority language rights. That is because new regulations seem to contradict earlier legislation without these laws being amended ¹²⁾. However, additions as in the example above illustrate a growing amount of barriers for teaching minority languages in school ¹³⁾.

In 2002 the Russian Duma ruled that all languages in Russia are to be written Cyrillic script¹⁴⁾. This was after Tatarstan attempted to adopt Latinista script for the Tatar language in 2001¹⁵⁾.

In 2007, an amendment to the education law was passed that increased the degree of federal control in education. This left the federal republics with less curricular room to provide education in the local languages. In fact, teaching these languages is now solely possible through implementing it in an optional part of the curriculum ¹⁶⁾. For a number of years, the situation was even bleaker, as the original incarnation of the law also forbade testing students in other languages of instruction than than Russian ¹⁷⁾. Fortunately, this ban was lifted in 2011, as an amendment to the law now made it possible to conduct optional examinations in languages other than Russian ¹⁸⁾.

In 2013, the 2012 law “On education in the Russian Federation“ replaced the “On Education” law of 1992, which centralized, standardized and reduced ethnic elements¹⁹⁾. The Law on Education of 2012 is set of core federal laws and a number of non-core laws in order to regulate education from a federal level. ²⁰⁾. The Law states that minority languages can be introduced according to the federal state educational standards, and “should not be to the detriment of the teaching and learning of the state language” ²¹⁾

In July 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that all citizens must learn Russian, and that no Russian can be forced to learn an ethnic language, even if the language is an official langauge of the republic ²²⁾. He said it is “impermissible to force someone to learn a language that is not [his or her] mother tongue, and to cut the number of hours of Russian language [classes at schools] in Russia's ethnic republics.” In August that same year, Putin ordered federal prosecutors to check whether ethnic Russian students in the autonomous republics were being forced to learn the local languages. ²³⁾

In June 2018, the Russian State Duma passed a draft on the voluntary teaching of non-Russian languages in a first reading. The draft law declares that:

• the teaching and learning of the state languages of republics has to be carried out on voluntary basis and not to the detriment of the state language of the Russian Federation
• the right to receive pre-school, primary and basic secondary education in native language as well as the right to study native languages within the range of possibilities offered by the education system has to be exercised taking into account the linguistic demands of students and their parents
• the voluntary choice of language learning is to be defined in bylaws of educational institutions, and the opinion of students and their parents is to be taken into account on the basis of the written demand of the parents.
  _{Excerpt from Minority language education in Russia: enforcing the voluntary teaching of non-Russian languages} ²⁴⁾.

The law limits earlier provisions for minority education, such as lowering the amount of hours from three up to five or six hours to two hours in total, one for the language and one for literature^{25) 26)}