There Is No Duty to Look Antiquated
A spokesman for the party, Alexander Dupin, told socialbites.ca that the proposed bill does not aim to curb anglicisms to an extreme level. Instead, it seeks to make information messages clear so that citizens can understand them without guesswork.
The bill’s core objective is not to force citizens to adopt an archaic form of Russian. Rather, it targets the opacity created when economic updates use unfamiliar terms that many people struggle to grasp. With 70 percent of news coverage featuring foreign terms describing current economic processes, terms once confined to scientific literature now saturate everyday discourse. Dupin notes that most readers do not understand what lies beneath such language.
Among the proposals are substitutions like inflation with rising prices and stagflation with stagnation. Dupin stressed that any changes would apply primarily to street signs, advertisements, and state media, not to the entire language of everyday speech.
According to the spokesperson, there is no obligation to resemble archaeologists translating every word into an ancient tongue. Russian, like any language, contains a wealth of well-established borrowings. The focus is on foreign terms in state media and economic news, which should not exceed five percent. If people are not continually exposed to borrowed terms, they will naturally gravitate toward more traditional Russian usage. The aim is not to suppress foreign words among the public, Dupin added.
Over the past quarter century, the bill has appeared before the State Duma seven times but has never progressed beyond the committee stage. The same pattern repeats itself: a bill that lacks broad political support tends to stall and fade away. This time, as before, the majority shows little appetite to pass it, according to Dupin.
The LDPR representative indicated that the final edits were made on the document just before the party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky passed away. In the latest edition, technical changes were introduced, for example replacing the term consumers with consumers, a term not frequently used before. The text even lists examples of words that complicate ordinary language, Dupin explained.
Imitation and Posture
Meanwhile, Crimea has begun to combat Anglicisms by creating a dictionary that replaces foreign English borrowings with Russian equivalents. The effort is framed as a defense of authentic Russian culture, which has endured under pressure from imported consumer culture and now seeks to reaffirm its originality. Vladimir Konstantinov, head of the Crimean State Council, emphasized the need to shed Western influences and embrace genuine Russian expressions.
The dictionary Speak Russian aims to cover roughly 300 words, including diving, talk show, commercials, coffee breaks, glamour, luxury, among others. Konstantinov noted that the term moderator posed a particular challenge because it describes a leadership role that directs dialogue, while a direct Russian equivalent has not become common. He also referenced the well-known okaye pronunciation as a linguistic feature rooted in tradition.
Plans call for distributing the dictionary during the Slavic cultural festival The Great Russian Word, which opened on June 6. Dupin, speaking on socialbites.ca, stressed that Crimean authorities have long pursued dictionaries to clarify meaning for citizens and reduce reliance on foreign terms.
Any Improvisation Can Lead to Misunderstandings
Mikhail Delyagin, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy and an economist, described the attempt to substitute Anglicisms as an intriguing experiment that may not be realistically achievable. He pointed out that many terms are deeply ingrained and cannot be easily replaced.
While the concept has merit, the practical execution is problematic. There are numerous foreign terms used in economic discourse that many users regard as part of their own lexicon. The repeated rejection of the bill stems from the difficulty of formalizing substitutions. For instance, replacing the word budget with a Russia-specific term raises questions. Inflation, he notes, is not simply higher prices but a depreciation that can occur through shortages and price increases alike. Such nuances complicate direct replacements, he argued in an interview with socialbites.ca.
Replacing inflation with a phrase like the depreciation of the ruble could mislead people into thinking the issue concerns currency rather than goods. Nikita Maslennikov, an economist and head of the Finance and Economics department of the Institute for Contemporary Development, agreed that some terms are imperfectly understood by non-experts. He warned that misinterpretation could be the result of altering established definitions.
Maslennikov argued that instead of scrambling terminology, it would be wiser to educate the public about economic language. Translation work should cover technical terms in science as well as everyday vocabulary to preserve accuracy and meaning. In his view, some terms have no suitable Russian equivalents and attempts to force replacements would degrade understanding rather than improve it.
The Word Bread Is Also a Borrowing
Igor Isaev, a candidate of philological sciences and director of the Institute of Linguistics at the Russian State Humanitarian University, explains that the Russian vocabulary mirrors socio-political dynamics. Borrowings are a natural feature of living languages, not a sign of failure. Language evolves, and social life continually shapes usage rather than being dictated by a fixed rulebook.
Isaev argues that removing Anglicisms wholesale would be misguided. A language is a system of communication that adapts to social life. The share of borrowed words cannot be precisely quantified, and there exists a substantial backlog of foreign terms already in use. The historical development of the Russian language shows a long tradition of loanwords dating back to the 14th and 15th centuries, when it began to establish itself as a distinct linguistic entity alongside other Slavic languages.
He noted that opposition to Anglicisms often stems from concerns about native word scarcity. Yet certain terms, such as computer, are widely adopted and cannot be entirely replaced by a native equivalent without losing precision. He even pointed to bread as another borrowed term, illustrating how deeply borrowed elements are embedded in daily speech.
Isaev added that there are areas of economic terminology that cannot be meaningfully rewritten by legislators. In his view, translating these words would risk erasing essential meaning for professionals and policymakers alike. The challenge remains to strike a balance between preserving linguistic integrity and ensuring clear, accurate economic discourse for the general public.