Northwestern Federal District is one of the eight federal districts of Russia. It covers most of Northwest Russia. Its population was 13.6 million, of which 83.5% was urban, living in an area of 1,687,000 square kilometers (651,000 sq mi), according to the 2010 Census. The current Envoy to the Northwestern Federal District is Alexander Gutsan, who was appointed to the post after previously serving as Deputy Prosecutor General. He replaced former Envoy Alexander Beglov, who was removed from the position and made acting Governor of Saint Petersburg.

Russian is an East Slavic language, spoken primarily in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living East Slavic languages, and is also a part of the larger Balto-Slavic languages. It was the de facto and de jure official language of the former Soviet Union. Russian has remained an official language in independent Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, and is still commonly used as a lingua franca in Ukraine, Moldova, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and to a lesser extent in the Baltic states and Israel.