Business Russian training
Russian for the room where the decision is made in Russian.
Corporate Russian training for teams working with Russian-speaking clients, counterparties and colleagues across the CIS and the diaspora. Formal register, names and patronymics, contract vocabulary and a negotiating style that is far more direct than the British equivalent.
Why companies buy this
Directness is not rudeness, and formality is not distance.
Getting the name and patronymic right in the first sentence tells your counterpart more than the next ten minutes will.
British teams working in Russian consistently misread two things. Negotiating language is more direct than they expect, so a firm position sounds like hostility; and professional address is more formal than they expect, so first names sound like presumption.
The result is a relationship conducted at the wrong temperature: the UK side softens until its position is unclear, the other side states theirs plainly, and both leave thinking the other was difficult.
Russian is also a genuinely demanding language to produce accurately. Case and aspect are not academic niceties — they are how a commitment is distinguished from an intention — so precision training pays commercially, quickly.
Our tutor selection and matching is reviewed by The Good Schools Guide, and Learn&Co is a member of The Tutors' Association.
Who the programme is for
Who inside the organisation needs Russian?
Executives with Russian-speaking clients
Private client, advisory and relationship teams working with Russian-speaking individuals and businesses in London and internationally, where formality and personal trust both matter.
Teams working across the CIS
Commercial and operational staff dealing with Russian-speaking counterparties in Central Asia and the Caucasus, where Russian remains the working business language.
Legal and compliance professionals
Advisers reading and discussing Russian-language documentation who need contract vocabulary, formal correspondence and accurate comprehension.
Managers of Russian-speaking teams
Leaders who want to run reviews, resolve issues and build rapport with Russian-speaking staff in their own language rather than through translation.
What we actually train
The business Russian that decides outcomes.
Names, patronymics and formal address
Using vy correctly, first name and patronymic in professional settings, and knowing when — if ever — the register relaxes.
Directness calibrated
Stating a position plainly in Russian, hearing directness as normal rather than hostile, and disagreeing firmly without damaging the relationship.
Case and aspect as commercial precision
The grammar that decides whether you have described a completed obligation or an ongoing intention — trained through contract and deadline language, not tables.
Meetings and negotiation
Opening, holding a position, conceding deliberately and confirming agreement, at the pace a real meeting runs.
Formal written Russian
Correspondence conventions, official letters and document vocabulary, including the formulaic openings and closings expected in business writing.
Sector vocabulary
Legal, financial, energy or commodities terminology drawn from the documents your team actually reads.
What the training looks like
Rehearsal for the meeting you have next week.
Selected network first, matching within it second. The tutors were interviewed and accepted into our network long before your enquiry arrived; what happens after the brief is design, selection and oversight — not recruitment.
Your documents, your counterparties
Contracts, correspondence and meeting papers from your own files become the material, so learners rehearse the conversation and the letter they owe someone this week.
Rehearsal, not lecture
Most of the hour is the learner speaking Russian under realistic pressure — a simulated negotiation, a hostile question, a two-minute update — with the tutor correcting what actually undermines them.
Mixed levels handled honestly
Where a team spans several levels, we assess individually and stream the group. Nobody is held back and nobody is drowning; the syllabus and vocabulary stay shared so the team still speaks a common professional language.
Scheduling that survives the diary
Early mornings, evenings, split sessions, remote weeks. Programmes are bought in monthly blocks rather than fixed slots so business travel does not break the rhythm.
How it is run
From scoping call to week-six review.
Scoping call
Twenty minutes with Maria: who is learning, what they have to be able to do in Russian, by when, and who signs the training off.
Level assessment
Every learner is assessed individually — speaking as well as grammar — so a mixed-ability team is grouped honestly rather than averaged into one useless class.
Written objectives and proposal
You receive objectives written as tasks, a recommended format, a schedule and a price. Nothing starts until the business has signed that off.
Specialist selection
We select from tutors already interviewed into our Russian network — by sector as much as by language — and you meet them before anything is committed.
Delivery around the working week
Weekly sessions online, at your offices or at ours in London, early mornings and evenings included, with a rescheduling policy that assumes business travel exists.
Reporting and the week-six review
Monthly written progress reports against the agreed objectives, attendance visible, and a founder-led review at week six to adjust pace, objectives or tutor.
Formats and investment
Three ways to structure your programme.
Companies buy corporate training in three different shapes, so we price it in three different ways. Executive programmes start at £120/hr per learner, bought in hours; open business terms start at £950 per person for ten weeks; a closed team programme is quoted in full after the scoping call, once the number of learners, the spread of levels and the frequency are clear. All figures include VAT.
Executive one-to-one
One person, one objective, complete flexibility.
A bespoke Russian programme for a single executive or specialist, built around the meetings, documents and clients that person actually deals with.
- Objectives agreed in writing before the first session
- Material drawn from your own documents and meetings
- Online, at your offices or at ours in London
- Monthly written reporting to the budget holder
From £120/hr
Bought in hours, per learner, VAT included: 4 hours at £120/hr (£480) month to month, down to £102/hr on 48 hours used within up to 12 months (£4,896).
Closed in-company group
One team, one syllabus, one invoice.
A group from the same organisation taught together in Russian, streamed by level so nobody is held back or left behind.
- Levels assessed individually, then grouped honestly
- Sector vocabulary shared across the whole team
- Consolidated reporting across locations
- Suits teams of three and upwards
Quoted
Calculated on group size, the spread of levels, frequency and whether you want us on site — quoted in full after the scoping call.
Open business group term
A ten-week term at a shared price.
Live small-group business Russian, for companies sending one or two people, or professionals who prefer to learn alongside others.
- Ten-week terms, maximum six people
- Professional syllabus, not a general course
- Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, London and online
- Invoiced to the company on request
From £950
Per person for a ten-week term, including VAT. A1–A2 £950, B1–B2 £1,050, C1–C2 £1,150. Maximum six people.
All figures include VAT. We invoice companies directly, work to purchase orders, and can provide the documentation, insurance and safeguarding information procurement teams ask for.
The evidence
Delivered inside law firms, hedge funds, publishing houses and global groups.
From our corporate clients
Our corporate training record.
A filmed client testimonial from our corporate training work, alongside verified reviews from professionals and companies across our languages — evidence of how we work, not all of it specific to business Russian.
“As English isn’t my native language, I’ve always tried to improve my skills by taking different courses, whether group sessions or one-to-one. Working with Marianne and Learn&Co has been, without a doubt, my best experience. Marianne is an…”
“I started taking lessons with Maria about six months ago in order to try and get my rusty French to a good enough level that I could use it professionally in my work as a lawyer. I cannot recommend her highly enough. Her enthusiasm and…”
“We came across Learn&Co thanks to a recommendation from a friend at Hyperion Insurance Group. He was so happy with their corporate language training that we decided to contact them and set up a trial lesson. It’s now been over 6 months…”
“I have been taking classes to improve my French and Spanish with Learn&Co for the past year and I have to say I’m loving it. I’m impressed with the quality and structure of the lessons. I feel like I’m making great progress. A few months…”
“Could not recommend more highly — a wonderful tutor. I have been tutored by Maria through work for a year and it has been a fantastic experience. The lessons are well structured (split between grammar, presentation, conversation, question…”
“I started French tutoring with Maria about 4 months ago and it has been incredibly beneficial. I work for a large financial corporation and I wanted to increase our business presence in the French speaking countries in North Africa. Maria…”
“I was looking for a mix of help with social chat in french, developing my professional french and rebooting my grammar and written french that had suffered from years of underuse. Maria is funny, engaging and highly skilful as a teacher.…”
Questions
Before you brief us.
- How long before someone can hold a professional conversation in Russian?
- For a complete beginner with weekly sessions and genuine practice between them, a narrow professional capability — introductions, your own subject matter, meeting comprehension — is realistic within a few terms. We set that expectation honestly at the scoping call rather than promising fluency.
- Do you teach Cyrillic from the start?
- Yes. Cyrillic takes days, not months, and without it learners cannot read a document, a name badge or an email. It is taught immediately and then used, not studied as a separate module.
- Can you prepare staff for TORFL?
- Yes, subject to specialist availability. Where a role, a registration or a relocation requires a certified level, we prepare for TORFL against the examination date.
- What does Business Russian training cost?
- Bespoke Business Russian programmes are bought in hours: 4 hours at £120/hr (£480) month to month, down to £102/hr on 48 hours used within up to 12 months (£4,896), VAT included, and are quoted in full after the scoping call, once learners, objectives and frequency are agreed. Open business group terms start at £950 per person for a ten-week term (A1–A2 £950, B1–B2 £1,050, C1–C2 £1,150). We invoice companies directly and work to purchase orders.
- Our team is at very different levels. Does that ruin a group programme?
- No, provided it is handled at the start. Every learner is assessed individually before the programme is designed, and a mixed team is streamed into two or three groups with a shared syllabus and shared vocabulary. We will tell you honestly when a group is the wrong purchase.
- Do you deliver in person, or only online?
- Both. We teach at your offices in London, at ours, and online for teams split across offices or time zones. Most corporate programmes end up mixed, and the format can change mid-programme without renegotiating anything.
- How do we prove it is working?
- Objectives are written as tasks at the start — run the weekly call unaided, answer client correspondence without help, present the quarterly update on site. You receive monthly written reports and a founder-led review at week six, with CEFR benchmarking where a formal level is required.
- Who are the tutors?
- Russian specialists already interviewed and accepted into our network long before your enquiry arrives, with genuine professional and sector experience. The match is made within that network against your brief and your sector, with Maria overseeing it, and you meet the tutor before anything is committed.
- Can you run programmes in several languages at once?
- Yes. We deliver in nine languages with a single point of contact and consolidated reporting, so a company training three teams manages one relationship rather than three suppliers.
- What if the tutor is not right for the learner?
- We rematch, at no cost. The chemistry call before the programme starts and the week-six review exist precisely so that is a small correction rather than a wasted budget.
Other ways to learn Russian
Not a corporate programme? There is another route.
- Corporate language training across all nine languages.
- Every route into Russian with Learn&Co, in one place.
- One-to-one tuition paid for privately rather than by a company.
- Small ten-week terms in our published languages, London and online.
- Certification prepared against the examination date, subject to availability.
Ready to brief us?
Twenty minutes with Maria.
Tell Maria who is learning, what they must be able to do in Russian and by when. She will tell you how we would approach it, which specialist she would match them with, and what it would cost.
Maria Toubbe
- 20 minutes
- A conversation, not a sales call.
- With Maria
- Our founder, every time — not a call centre.
- No obligation
- Advice you can use even if you never book.
20 min · video call · free
Prefer to write?