The geopolitical role of the Russian language in the XXI century

The article is devoted to the study of the geopolitical role of the Russian language in the XXI century. Until 1991, Russian was the language of interethnic communication in the USSR, de facto performing the functions of the state language. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian language is still used in the countries that formerly were part of the USSR, as a native language for a part of the population and as a language of international communication. Russian is the language of international communication in the former Soviet Union and the official or working language of many international and intergovernmental organizations. The purpose of the article is to study the geopolitical role, functioning and potential of the Russian language from different points of view, especially emphasizing the role of the Eurasian economic Union. In the era of globalization, it is important to find out the framework of functioning and geopolitical positions of the Russian language. The article considers the functioning and position of the Russian language in all countries of the Eurasian economic Union. The examples of the Russian language functioning, especially in Armenia, are presented. A special survey was conducted among the students of the Northern University of Armenia. Its results are shown by means of a chart demonstrating the exact percentage of foreign language preferences. The results of this work can serve as a basis for further research on the geopolitical role of the Russian language. The author makes a conclusion that the Russian language, although lost its popularity to some extent, still remains the language of communication between post-Soviet countries, and the integration processes and socio-economic factors make its position stable.