Russian govt bans officials from using foreign words and expressions

Russian government officials will now be banned from using foreign words when carrying out their respective duties.According to the amended law, officials will be bound to use Russian language in formal communications. President Vladimir Putin signed the orderon Tuesday.

As per a statement on theRussian government's official website, the amendments to the 2005 law are designed to 'protect and support the status of Russia.'

It specifies that "when using Russian as the state language of the Russian Federation, it is not allowed to use words and expressions that do not correspond to the norms of modern Russian ... with the exception of foreign words which do not have widely-used corresponding equivalents in Russian."

A government commission will put together a list for official language usage, and dictionaries that will also be approved by the cabinet.

Earlier, it was also against the law to use words and phrases that didn't conform to the norms of the modern literary Russian language, including obscenities.

The amendmentsdo not mention any punishments for individualswho fail to follow the updated law. However, according to Reuters, a separate list of foreign-based words that can still be used will be published separately.

The list of these words will be published in dictionaries and reference books.

Recently, the Russian authorities also imposed a fine on Wikipedia worth two million roubles ($27,000) over "misinformation" about the military units.

(With inputs from agencies)

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