Original Russian-language ministerial order, nine pages, amending the Procedure for Admission to Programmes of Primary, Basic and Secondary General Education. It implements the federal law of December 2024 requiring children who are foreign citizens to pass a test of Russian-language proficiency and to prove their legal status before admission to a Russian school.
Order No. 171 amends the school admission procedure so that a child who is a foreign citizen may be enrolled only after the school has verified the legality of the child's stay in Russia and the child has passed a test of Russian-language proficiency sufficient to follow the curriculum. The order sets the documents to be presented, the timing of the test and the consequence of failure, which is refusal of admission until the child has been taught Russian. The order is a nationwide instrument and does not mention the occupied territories. Its relevance there follows from the citizenship regime: since the presidential decree of March 2025 residents of the four regions who hold only Ukrainian citizenship are treated as foreign nationals, so a family that has refused Russian passports faces the same admission barrier as a migrant family. Together with the recognition rules in Law No. 5-FKZ (DOC-154), the order shows how a child's schooling becomes conditional on the parents' acceptance of Russian documents. It is cited in TOT Insights research on passportisation and on the institutional pathway of children under occupation.
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Key provisions
Verification of status. On receiving an application for a child who is a foreign citizen or stateless person, the school checks, through the interior ministry, that the child is lawfully present in the Russian Federation; without confirmation the application is not considered.
Language testing. Such children are admitted only after passing a test of proficiency in Russian sufficient to master the educational programme; the test is organised by the school under rules set by the federal supervisory body and may be retaken after further study.
Documents. The list of documents to be presented by parents is amended to include those proving the legality of the child's stay and, where applicable, migration registration.
Entry into force. 1 April 2025.
Analytical note
The order does not integrate occupation schools into the Russian system; that was done by Federal Law No. 19-FZ of 17 February 2023. Its significance for occupied Ukraine is indirect but concrete. Once a resident without a Russian passport is a "foreign citizen", every child in that household must pass a Russian test and prove lawful presence to attend the only schools that exist.