Vladimir Putin is reputed to be semi-obsessed with the plight of Russian speakers left behind in various former SSRs that were part of the USSR. These now independent countries are trying to get their residents to speak the local language instead of Russian.
Ukraine is a prime example of this. There are many others including the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, plus places like Georgia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, and the various “‘stans.”
Putin appears to intend using these “left behind” populations as excuses to reconquer the places they now live and thereby “liberate” these poor, mistreated ethnic Russians. Ukraine isn’t even the first such, which happened in Georgia.
However, Russia is suffering a very low birth rate, and population decline. Wouldn’t it make much more sense for Putin to invite these “ethnic Russians” to “come home” to Russia? To facilitate their moves, help them find jobs and housing, and work to integrate them into the fabric of Russian life much as Israel has done with Jews? It could give the Russian economy a boost.
Voluntarily “importing” Russian speakers seems like the smart thing to do both for Russia and for the former SSRs. Those who choose to stay where they now live, which many will do, will have then made an actual choice to be Latvian or Moldovan and perhaps not so much resist learning the local language.
