Russia is the ninth most populous country in the world, and although at first glance you could be forgiven for thinking that this is a Slav-only nation, the country is far from homogenous. Sure, Slavs certainly dominate but Russia is made up of more than 100 nationalities, from Tatars who boast several million, to smaller peoples in remote parts of Siberia who may number only a few thousand. State-led attempts to glorify the benefits of being a Soviet citizen and crush any kind of nationalism were only moderately successful. Today, people you meet in Russia will proudly tell you that they are an ethnic Armenian, Bashkir, Chuvash, Dagestani or Evenki, albeit one that was born and brought up in Russia.

Russians use two words to describe the people in their country:

Русский (Roo-skee) denotes an ethnic Russian person

Российский (Rah-see-skee) denotes a non-ethnic Russian person born & brought up in Russia.

As a visitor to Russia, just because you hold a passport from a certain country, Russians are still likely to stick to your ethnicity (ie, a UK passport holder whose parents are originally from India would still be assumed to be Indian, not British). Don’t take this personally, as even Russians who emigrate to other countries and gain citizenship will still tend to consider themselves Russian.