7 influential politicians speaking in Russian.

Фото: Depositphotos

Most Russian-speaking politicians lived in the former Soviet republics and other countries that were in close ties with the USSR. Knowledge of the Russian language has become a prerequisite for moving up the career ladder.

Although not all leaders of countries such as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia and Ukraine like to speak Russian, but when they meet, they often use it to communicate with each other.

Knowledge of Russian is widespread among the older generation of European politicians in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Hungary.

Today there are many politicians around the world who speak Russian.

Angela Merkel

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, is fluent in Russian.

Merkel was born in Hamburg, Germany. Her father, a representative of the Lutheran church, moved the family across the border to the east just a few weeks after her birth. Growing up in East Germany, where Soviet troops were stationed, Merkel had the opportunity to learn Russian, since it was taught in schools as a foreign language. Being a capable student, she won Olympiads at all levels, including at the country level. She was a three-time champion in Russian language skills in East Germany.

Merkel never speaks Russian in public. However, Russian human rights activist Arseny Roginsky said that during her visit to Moscow in 2005, Merkel refused to have a translator and spoke Russian slowly and carefully, like a diligent student.

Merkel is known to have spoken in Russian with Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in Sochi in August 2008. She waved towards the Black Sea and said: “President Putin told me that every morning he swims a kilometer out to sea. Do you swim like that?” Medvedev replied that he was swimming 1,5 kilometers from the shore.

Michael McFaul

It is not surprising that the former ambassador of the United States to Russia speaks good Russian.

Michael McFaul visited the Soviet Union for the first time in 1983, and lived in several cities over the next decade. He studied at the Leningrad State University and Moscow State University.

McFaul often interacts with the Russian public and even appeared on Russian television.

7 November 2012, after the second successful presidential campaign of Barack Obama, McFaul was invited to a TV show with Ivan Urgant, a famous Russian artist.

The show was conducted in Russian, and McFaul understood Russian humor perfectly well, played along and joked a little.

Here are some of his tweets, where he confesses his love for Russian beer:

Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Albright was the first female secretary of state in the United States.

Albright chose a policy in the footsteps of his father. She received education at Columbia University, received a certificate in Russian language and a master’s degree and a doctoral degree in public law and government.

Albright was in Russia several times. For example, she visited the Moscow State Institute of International Relations 11 in February 2010 and welcomed Russian students to their native language.

Kondoliza Rays

The former US Secretary of State and one of the most significant politicians during the reign of George W. Bush studied Russian in his student years.

Condoleezza Rice rarely shows her public skills. In her own words, she lacks practice.

Kim Jong Il

Kim Jong Il was the supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from 1997 until his death in 2011.

At that time, the Soviet Union was the largest philanthropist in North Korea, so father Kim Jong Il considered studying Russian as a prerequisite for bilateral relations between countries.

Sauli Niiniste

Sauli Niinistö, the President of Finland, admitted that he "started learning Russian about the same time as he tried to quit smoking."

Niiniste takes Russian lessons every week and pays special attention to polite words. At Niinist's recent meetings with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, it turned out that his knowledge of Russian was progressing. Now he can say “Thank you” and “I’m also very glad to see you.”

Jacques Chirac

Jacques Chirac served as President of France from 1995 to 2007.

In his youth he had a Russian teacher, an emigrant from St. Petersburg. He made him fall in love with Russian literature so much that the future president himself translated into French nothing less than Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin.”

Jacques Chirac: “I tried to publish it, sent it to different publishing houses, but no one responded. Apparently the translation was not very good. But a few years later, when I was prime minister in 1974, the director of a large publishing house called me and said, well, you found a good translation, write an introduction. I answer them: if they didn’t publish it when I was 20, now it won’t work. That’s how I remained unpublished.”

According to Jacques Chirac, if he were offered to hang three portraits in his study, he would choose the portraits of Pushkin, De Gaulle and Louis XIV.

Previously "Forum" писал about the Minister of Sport of Russia, Vitaly Mutko, who spoke English in a very funny and illiterate manner with journalists. Vladimir Putin presented the Minister of Birthday with a self-help book of English.