Russophone

A Russophone (Russian: русскоговорящий, русскоязычный; russkogovoryashchy, russkoyazychny) is 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 the Russian language regardless of territorial distinctions.

There are an estimated 162 million native speakers of Russian worldwide (of whom 137 million or 85% live in the Russian Federation) and about 110 million people who speak Russian as a second language.

There are sizable Russophone communities in many neighbouring countries that were parts of the former Soviet Union, including 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 is a common misnomer to refer to Russophones as "Russians". For example, Brighton Beach is often described as a "Russian community", while in fact the majority of Russophone Brighton Beach residents are Jews from Odessa, Ukraine. (So much so, that the area is also known as Little Odessa.) Ironically, a significant number of Russian cultural associations in the United States are affiliated with Jewish Community Centers, called Juykas by American Russophones.