Russian Authorities Should Suspend Language Proficiency Barriers

Researcher, Europe and Central Asia Division

This week, Russia’s education and science supervision agency, Rosobrnadzor, reported that so far in 2025 only 335 children of migrants have been allowed to take the Russian language proficiency test, a new prerequisite for school enrolment. This means that just 19 percent of the 1,762 children who applied to take the test were allowed. A law prohibiting public schools from enrolling children of foreign nationals without proof of Russian language proficiency was adopted by the State Duma in December 2024 and has been in effect since April 1, 2025.

Officials cited incomplete documentation, lack of school places, and alleged inaccuracies in applications as grounds for rejecting the other 1427 students. Of the 335 who were allowed to register for the test, only 44 children took it, and of them 27 completed the assessment and gained the necessary passing points; the rest failed.

Mandatory Russian language testing is a part of the Kremlin’s crackdown on migrants amid increasing xenophobiafollowing the March 2024 Crocus City Hall attack, which has been attributed to Central Asian suspects. Despite Russia’s heavy dependence on migrant labor, ultranationalist sentiment has surged, resulting in sweeping legislation changes that significantly curtail the rights of migrants living and working in Russia.

The language proficiency requirement provides a pretext for the preexisting practice of schools across Russia arbitrarily refusing admission to migrant children. It creates a systemic barrier to children’s right to education, violating Russia’s human rights obligations with respect to education and nondiscrimination.

By weaponizing language proficiency as an exclusionary mechanism to deny migrant children access to education, Russian authorities are also depriving these children of the economic and health benefits that education provides. Denying migrant children access to school also hinders their long-term social integration, increases the risk they will engage in hazardous child labor and exposes them to child marriage. All children in Russia should have equal access to education regardless of nationality or language proficiency.

Russian authorities should immediately suspend the discriminatory language testing requirement and instead design and implement accelerated Russian language programs for school-aged children through the government school system. Other governments should urge the Russian authorities to implement these measures.