Russian will become the fifth working language of the International federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and it will gain official status in 2015 or 2017. The head of European zoning office of the international federation Anitta Underlin has declared that.Work on granting Russian language a new status in the Red Cross has been led for the past three years. Russian was used as a working language in several large events, including the Red Cross conference in 2011 and the General Assembly in Sydney, which took place two weeks ago, noted the organization’s representative.
Underlin has noted the role of the Russian government in implementing Russian language by financing all expenses through governmental payment and through the foundation "Russian world".
Granting Russian language an official status in the organization can take place in 2015 or 2017. The delay is due to the necessity to make changes to the Charter of the Red Cross, which can happen no more than once every ten years. Currently, working languages of the organization are English, French, Arabic and Spanish.
