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Russian minorities fear for languages amid new restrictions

Residents of Russia's republics, which have large minority populations, fear their cultures are under attack after an announcement to significantly scale back the teaching of languages other than Russian.
When Anzhela Yausheva was growing up in Kazan, she remembers studying six or seven hours of Tatar language a week. She's not fluent, but the language has a strong cultural significance for her.
"Tatars have a very rich culture, a very rich historical heritage, and they want to preserve it," Yausheva says. "I think that studying the language is very important, especially at schools."
So last weekend when she was home visiting her parents in the capital of Russia's Republic of Tatarstan, Yausheva decided to participate in a mass dictation of Tatar literature. The event was organized to promote the study of the language now considered to be under threat in Russia.
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