Russian (ру́сский язы́к) is an East Slavic language spoken by approximately 260 million speakers in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and other former Soviet countries, with recognized minority status in Romania, Finland, Norway, Armenia, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, United States and Ukraine.
Russian is the most widespread Slavic language, the largest native language of Europe and one of the official languages of the United Nations.