ИСТИНА

The present paper focuses on how Russian English functions within the landscape of Instagram which is, to great extent, dominated by the global communication medium, the English language. For this purpose, 55 Instagram accounts belonging to Instagram users of Russian origin residing in Russia as well as overseas have been analyzed. In order to gain extensive popularity worldwide, many Russian Instagram users (similar to their overseas counterparts) tend to utilize English, the global language, simultaneously with their native language, Russian, when writing posts. However, Russian users are prone to rely on the Russian variety of English which is characteristic of Russia belonging to the exonormative Expanding Circle. Despite the fact that the status of Russia(n) English is a subject of domestic debate, many academicians agree on the existence of the Russian variety of the English language that can be identified by the set of the distinctive features easily recognized by the majority of Russians (Proshina 2010, 2014). Moreover, Russian English acts as a means of expressing Russian identity. However, Instagram Russian English, being the subject of present paper, has been left out of scholarly research. Are Russian Instagram users likely to employ Russian English more or less often than Russian? Which language does come first in order of sequence when users write bilingual posts: Russian English or Russian? What cultural domains or topics, reflecting the national Russian mindset, does the Instagram Russian English verbalize? What lectal zones (basi-, meso- or acrolectal) are employed by Instagram Russian English users? What are the typical lexical, grammatical and stylistic features of the Instagram Russian English? These key issues and problems will be explored in the present paper.