Ruminations on Russia writes about the language issue in Russia: “The problem is apparently that the near abroad prefer their own language and English to Russian and Russian (strange that), and native Russians (whoever they may be – but that's a different topic altogether) have a nasty habit of eating sala, drinking vodka, not having enough sex, too many abortions, dying early and generally being fewer at the end of the year than at the beginning. Not so much a dying language, as a population suffering from a collective heart attack.”