"[1] Tajikistan is one of three former Soviet republics in Central Asia to have Russian as a de jure official language, along with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

[3] According to article 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan,[1] Russian is recognized as the second official language of Tajikistan; the official language of inter-ethnic communication (Russian: язык межнационального общения, jazyk mežnacional'nogo obšenija; Tajik: забони муоширати байни миллатҳо, zabon-i muoširati bayn-i millatho).

Russian had previously lost its official status after Tajikistan's independence in late 1991, which was then restored with the Constitution.

Colloquial speech has retained almost all Russian borrowed elements (with the exception of words of purely Soviet semantics).

Pamiri often view the exclusion of their languages from educational and official spheres in favour of Tajik as threatening intentional and gradual assimilation.

Moreover, Pamiris rarely occupy higher positions of power than first deputy and are not present in law enforcement and security owing to suspicions of anti-government sympathies — such as during the Tajikistani Civil War — and more favourable views towards Russia and Russians contextualised in the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.

Tajikistan also has small communities of native speakers of Persian, Arabic, Pashto, Georgian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Tatar, Turkmen, Kazakh, Chinese, Ukrainian.