Vladimir Putin approved a list of instructions following a meeting of the Council for State Policy on Promoting the Russian Language and Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation, held on June 2, 2026.
The instructions issued to the Government of the Russian Federation include measures to establish Children’s Book Day, create the Russian Pushkin Society national public organisation, and provide state support for the publication and distribution of fiction in the languages of the peoples of the Russian Federation. Additionally, the Pushkin State Russian Language Institute has been designated as the country’s central scientific and methodological institution responsible for evaluating Russian-language teaching materials for foreign learners and coordinating the activities of educational and other organisations engaged in supporting and promoting the Russian language abroad.
The Government, together with the Presidential Council for State Policy on Promoting the Russian Language and Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation, has been instructed to review legislation on the state language, as well as other legal acts concerning the mandatory use of the state language in consumer information and advertising, and to assess their practical implementation. Should it be deemed necessary, proposals for additional legislative measures are to be submitted. Furthermore, the Government, in cooperation with the Council and the All-Russian Society of the Deaf, has been instructed to support the development of Russian sign language.
The instructions issued to the Presidential Council for State Policy on Promoting the Russian Language and Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation pertain to amendments to the Fundamentals of State Language Policy. These include introducing an annual state report on the implementation of state language policy, to be submitted by the Government of the Russian Federation to the President and both chambers of the Federal Assembly beginning in 2027. The Council has also been instructed to provide methodological and expert assistance to the International Organisation for the Russian Language on matters related to supporting and promoting Russian as a language of interethnic communication.
The Ministry of Culture, together with the Government of St Petersburg, has been instructed to organise events in 2027 marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Alexander Pushkin Memorial Apartment Museum.
The Ministry of Culture, together with the Ministry of Education, the Russian Znaniye Society, and regional executive authorities, has been instructed to involve state theatres in the implementation of recitation programmes in general and vocational educational institutions.
Separate instructions have also been issued to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and the Federal Service for Supervision in Education and Science (Rosobrnadzor).
The Russian Znaniye Society, together with the Presidential Council for State Policy on Promoting the Russian Language and Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation, has been recommended to ensure the annual organisation of the Reading with the Whole Family national online audiovisual content competition and the national song poetry competition, Znaniye: Authors, named after Nikolai Dobronravov.