A boom in learning Mandarin, including in President Vladimir Putin’s family, has become a stark example of Russia’s continued pivot toward China and away from ties with the West.
Amid a rise in job postings requiring the language, a surge in Chinese classes and new study abroad opportunities, one unique strategy that’s been employed by some of Russia’s elite has been to hire nannies from China. In the last three years, demand for Mandarin-speaking nannies has spiked, well overtaking French- and German-speakers to fall second only to English, said Valentin Grogol, the head of English Nanny, a company that places foreign caregivers with Russian families.
That’s driven the cost to take on Mandarin-speaking nannies to double in recent years to $120,000 a year or more, he said, roughly ten times the average Russian income in 2024.
Even Putin’s granddaughter has a nanny from Beijing, which allowed her to gain fluency in Chinese, the Russian leader revealed to journalists in June in a rare insight into his family life.
“Many people used to see Europe and America as their future for applying to universities or emigrating,” said Nataly Wang, the founder of the Chinese First language school in Moscow, which saw its revenue grow more than 300% between 2022 and 2024, according to her. “Now, more are turning to China.”
Where once Western languages were prime targets for students, the trend toward Chinese learning shows Russia’s reorientation toward Asia runs deeper than just trade and diplomatic ties. Some of the shift has been driven by Kremlin policies aimed at strengthening its “no limits” partnership with the world’s second-largest economy, and closing off cooperation with Europe and the US after they imposed sanctions over the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but it’s taken on a momentum of its own as opportunities in the West are increasingly closed off.
Trade between China and Russia grew to a record $245 billion in 2024, which has laid fertile ground for new business and educational cooperation, as well as job opportunities that can require knowing Mandarin.
Demand for Chinese-speaking employees more than doubled in the space of a year, Avito Jobs, a Moscow-based classified ads service, said on its Telegram channel in March. Another employment platform, Superjob.ru, said that as of April 2024, job postings for Chinese-speaking professionals jumped 63% compared to the same time a year earlier.
Meanwhile, the number of schools in the capital offering Chinese more than doubled last year, Deputy Moscow Mayor Anastasia Rakova said, according to the official Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper. Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, one of the country’s most prestigious universities, has a new online Master’s degree program for Chinese language in business communication and is accepting its first applicants in 2025.
The Far Eastern Federal University plans for all students to study Chinese by 2030, its vice rector for international relations, Evgeny Vlasov, told the EastRussia platform in an interview published in September.
While a greater number of job postings still require English, the world’s primary international language and a still popular choice among Russian students, part of what’s driving the recent rise in interest in China is the state’s effort to quash some of the opportunities for students to study in the West amid the rift over the war in Ukraine.
Russia’s Justice Ministry has labeled a handful of European and US universities — including Yale University, Bard College and Central European University — “undesirable organizations,” making any collaboration with them, including paying tuition, a crime.
Authorities have also added the British Council, which helps administer a language exam often required of applicants to universities in English-speaking countries, and other education groups to the “undesirable” list.
‘Chinese to the Masses’
In 2021, the year before the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine, the Higher School of Economics had only one Chinese destination where students could study abroad, but 10 German institutions, according to an archived version of its website. Today, the university lists 15 options in mainland China, two more in Hong Kong, but none in Germany.
When Nikita Kulikov, a Moscow State University student, neared graduation and faced the risk of being drafted into the military, his professor advised him to consider applying to Chinese institutions to continue his studies. It turned out to be an affordable and easy way to leave Russia and continue his education.
Lian Beliaeva from St. Petersburg, see studying in China as a part of the broader and expanding partnership between the two countries. She started learning the language in childhood and moved to Beijing with the dream of becoming a Chinese teacher for Russians.
“When you watch Chinese social media, you see a lot of Russian people, and Chinese people studying Russian,” said Beliaeva. “It’s time for us to be friendly neighbors and start bringing Chinese to the masses.”
Bloomberg
