In 2025, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine still lead among unfriendly countries in the number of their citizens studying at Russian universities. At the same time, indicators in the first two republics increased, while in Ukraine they decreased by almost a third, according to statistics of the Ministry of Education and Science reviewed by Vedomosti.
During the 2024/25 academic year, 605 Latvian citizens and 363 Estonian citizens studied at Russian universities. In 2025/26, this number increased to 615 and 380 respectively. In contrast, Lithuania saw a decrease – from 163 to 153 students.
Deputy Director of the European Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladislav Belov explains the situation by demography: in Latvia, about 23% of the population is Russian, in Estonia – about 22%. Studying in Russian is difficult for them. Political scientist Vladimir Olenchenko added that the statistics also include Russian-speaking Latvians and Estonians. For them, studying in Russia is associated with maintaining business relationships. According to him, knowledge of the Russian language remains a competitive advantage in the European Union.
Slight increases were also recorded in several other countries. From Romania the number of students increased from 15 to 24 people. Alina Azarenkova, a teacher at the Department of Political Science at Moscow State Linguistic University, suggested that some of them could be citizens of Moldova, including those from Transnistria who hold Romanian passports. According to her version, they could apply for Romanian citizenship due to quota restrictions.
The number of students from Cyprus increased from 37 to 41, from New Zealand – from 2 to 3, from Norway – from 7 to 8 people.
Some countries on the list of 49 unfriendly countries approved by the government in March 2022 have shown stagnation. The number of students from Slovakia – 53, Canada – 36, Netherlands – 10, Slovenia – 7 and Iceland – 1 remained unchanged.
Most countries show a decline. Ukraine remains the largest of the unfriendly countries in terms of the number of students in Russia, but the dynamics are negative. In 2024, 3,646 Ukrainian citizens study at Russian universities, in 2025 – 2,295. Senior researcher at IMEMO RAS Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky links this to a change in the reasons for admission and obtaining Russian citizenship. He recalled that in 2016 there were about 23,000 Ukrainian students studying in Russia.
South Korea takes 4th place: down from 319 to 258 people. Next is Germany – from 208 to 207, Bulgaria – from 189 to 168, USA – from 100 to 97. Greece drops from 96 to 87, Italy – from 86 to 81, Japan – from 75 to 61. France falls out of the top 10, dropping from 74 to 59 students.
According to Belov, the indicators for Europe and the United States are largely explained by the inertia of previously established academic ties, dual citizenship and exchange programs. Associate Professor of the Department of Oriental Studies at MGIMO Ilya Dyachkov noted that cultural and educational contacts are maintained with Korea and Japan. Researcher at IMEMO RAS Mikhail Terskikh clarifies that we are mainly talking about humanists and linguists.
A decrease was also recorded in Austria – from 19 to 18, Albania – from 41 to 32, North Macedonia – from 48 to 41, Spain – from 43 to 38, England – from 35 to 27, Hungary – from 23 to 20, Poland – from 26 to 15, Finland – from 32 to 28, Montenegro – from 32 to 27, Czech Republic – from 24 to 27 to 19 people.
A total of 6,521 students from unfriendly countries studied in Russia in 2024, including Ukraine. By 2025, this number will decrease to 4,983 people. The Ministry of Education and Science reports that international cooperation in the field of higher education continues, although the volume has decreased.
Rossotrudnichestvo noted that in the US, Canada, Australia and the European Union, recruitment takes place under conditions of sanctions and limited contact with Russian organizations, but projects promoting Russian education are maintained.
According to the Ministry of Education and Science, in total, citizens of 179 countries study bachelor's, specialist and master's programs in Russia. The main flow comes from CIS countries, China and India – about 75% of all foreign students. In fall 2025, there will be 414,000 foreign students studying at Russian universities. Kirill Tyurchev, deputy director of the Research Institute of Statistics and Knowledge Economy at the Higher School of Economics, noted that the share of citizens of unfriendly countries in this figure is just over 1%, and with the exception of Ukraine – about 0.5%.
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