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“We Are Ready to Learn Chinese”: Irkutsk Residents Ask China for Schools Moscow Never Built
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Residents of a district in Russia’s Irkutsk region have appealed to the Russian leadership with an unusual request: if Moscow cannot build long-promised schools and kindergartens, they want China to help instead, Russian media outlet Astra reported on May 20.
The appeal came from residents of the Berezovy neighborhood, who say local and regional authorities have failed for years to complete basic educational infrastructure.
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A school that was promised in 2021 remains only partially built, while construction of a kindergarten was reportedly frozen two years ago due to lack of funding.
Residents said they had spent the past five years sending written appeals to city officials, regional authorities, and the Russian leader personally, but the situation had not changed. Children are still forced to travel to neighboring settlements for school.
“We have a critical shortage of preschool educational institutions. How you plan to increase the birth rate under such conditions is a huge mystery to us,” one local resident said.
Residents of Russia’s Irkutsk Region (which is close to China) have asked Putin to request that Xi Jinping have China pay for the construction of a school for them.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) May 19, 2026
No one believes Putin is capable of anything useful anymore, it seems. https://t.co/2ezR2lnN51 pic.twitter.com/G1pKxEa2f8
According to the appeal, the school, which was supposed to be completed by 2021, was only about 20% complete as of February 13, 2026.
“If the Russian Federation is unable to build a school in our neighborhood, we ask Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to appeal to Chinese Communist Party Chairman Xi Jinping with a proposal to finance the construction of our school,” the residents said.
They framed the request as part of “ethnocultural diversity and the active development of cultural ties with China,” adding that they were even ready to start learning Chinese if Beijing agreed to help.
“We are ready to begin learning Chinese, because we believe we really need it, and the active development of cultural ties with China is the only path of development for us in conditions where our country’s priorities are somewhere around building new metro stations in Moscow and new schools in Tajikistan,” the residents said.
The appeal points to growing frustration in Russia’s regions, where residents often complain that federal spending priorities favor Moscow, foreign projects, and geopolitical ambitions while basic local infrastructure remains unfinished.
Earlier, reports emerged that Russia was seeking financial backing and technologies from China to construct a highway along the Caspian Sea toward Iran and Southern Asia.
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