It is worth noticing the most relevant figures about Russian population/native speakers living abroad. It’s not possible to provide a totally precise picture since censuses in different countries were not conducted in the same year, but we tried to stay as close as possible and used data from the last few years. According to it, the largest ethnic Russian diaspora populations outside Russia (besides Ukraine) live in Kazakhstan (nearly 3.5 million in 2022) and nearly 800,000 in each Uzbekistan (data from 2017) & Belarus (data from 2019) (Wikipedia 2023b). According to the same source, Ukraine is the leader far ahead with over 8 million ethnic Russians living there which makes up over 17% of the population. But this data has to be used with caution because it’s provided based on the last and only official census in the country which is not as recent as the others above (from 2001). Therefore we also use some more recent but indirect data: (native) language as the primary and an always present characteristic of ethnicity (Mishra 2022). A survey conducted in 2012 by the Ukraine sociological group “Rating” showed that 50% of the citizens name Ukrainian as their native language while 29% of the population (the highest amongst other countries) named Russian as their native language (UCIRP 2017: 6). For obvious reasons recent data is controversal – depending on the source.

Besides absolute numbers mentioned earlier, Russian diaspora percentage of the national population is also a significant marker: over 24% in Latvia, over 23% in Estonia, nearly 18% in Kazakhstan, etc. (Wikipedia 2023b).

For the context of InterCultural Hotel project the facts in 3.2. and 3.3. are relevant in terms of a considerable possibility to communicate in Russian not only with Russian citizens, but also with visitors from the above-mentioned countries (if there is no other common language). What’s more, since culture is connected with language, these visitors might have some common traits with Russian guests in cultural preferences, behavior, beliefs, etc., specifically tourists from Balto-Slavic ethnic origin.

In the light of the above-mentioned facts in the background of the Russia – Ukraine conflict it’s also extremely important for hospitality staff to make sure that their personal feelings and views on the topic don’t interfere with the service provided. They need to remember that professional behavior doesn’t allow showing any political preferences and that they should treat all of their guests equally.