1) Government authorities will be required to protect and support Russia’s state language and Russian citizens’ right to use it. Within their powers, federal authorities will develop laws, other regulatory legal acts and state programmes aimed at protecting and supporting the Russian language.
2) Identity and equivalence. Where a foreign language is used alongside Russian in these areas, both texts must be identical in content and equivalent in placement and technical presentation, with the same colour, font type and size.
3) Where Russian will have to be used. The new law adds the following to the areas where use of Russian is compulsory under Article 3 of the Law on the State Language of the Russian Federation: education, taking account of provisions in education legislation; state and municipal information systems; and information for consumers of goods, work and services, an area attracting particularly numerous complaints from citizens.
4) How foreign borrowings will be restricted. Under the law, foreign loanwords may be used when there is no commonly used Russian equivalent. Standards of contemporary literary Russian and permitted loanwords will be set out in official dictionaries and reference books. The Russian Government will determine how these are compiled.