Putin describes Russian language as binding force for CIS countries

President Vladimir Putin has described the Russian language as a uniting force consolidating the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

He made the remarks at the informal summit of the CIS countries, Gazeta.ru reports, citing the press service of the Kremlin.

The Russian leader emphasized that peoples of the Commonwealth are united by "common history, spiritual roots, deep interlacing of cultures and customs, values and traditions," and the Russian language is a "powerful unifying force," which binds together multinational states.

Putin reminded that the CIS countries have earlier decided to declare 2023 the Year of the Russian language. The Russian leader thanked the participants for their support of this initiative.

For his part, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan noted that the role of the Russian language in strengthening the linguistic space of the CIS cannot be questioned. He stressed that cultural and humanitarian cooperation and the strengthening of the linguistic space play an important role in the CIS.