Sadyr Japarov: “Russian Language is Needed as Much as the Kyrgyz Language”

Sadyr Japarov, President of Kyrgyzstan, commented on the language law adopted in the Republic.

“It is impossible to work in the CIS countries without knowledge of the Russian language,” said the Kyrgyz leader.

Earlier, Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister, commenting on the law on the state language introduced in Kyrgyzstan, called its adoption “not quite democratic.”

The Kyrgyz leader signed the law on the state language on July 17. The document defines a list of persons who are obliged to speak Kyrgyz and use it in the course of their official duties. The list includes executive officers, employees of educational institutions of all forms of ownership, teachers, scientists and academicians, as well as healthcare professionals of state and municipal healthcare institutions. 

“For us, the Russian language plays as important a role as the Kyrgyz language does, because we build relations with the CIS countries through the Russian language. We also negotiate with China, Arab and European countries in Russian,” Mr Japarov emphasized.

President of Kazakhstan Kasym-Jomart Tokayev proposed to create an international organization to support the Russian language under the auspices of the CIS. This proposal will be considered at the CIS presidential summit on October 13 in Bishkek.

As you may recall, 2023 is declared the Year of the Russian language. The Russian language is the official language of the CSTO, the language of interethnic and intercultural communication. Russian is also the language used in military exercises conducted on the territory of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Member States. Single-language communication an advantage for CSTO countries’ military contingents interacting with each other.