Learning Russian as a foreign language (RFL) presents unique linguistic, phonetic, grammatical, and cultural challenges, particularly for speakers of Turkic languages such as Uzbek. These difficulties stem from fundamental typological differences between the two languages: Russian is a fusional Indo-European language with rich inflection, while Uzbek is an agglutinative Turkic language relying on suffixes and postpositions. This article examines the primary obstacles faced by Uzbek learners, including mastery of the Cyrillic alphabet, pronunciation of non-native sounds, complex case system, verb aspects, gender agreement, and vocabulary interference. Drawing on comparative linguistic analysis and empirical observations, the study highlights how these structural mismatches affect acquisition at phonetic, morphological, syntactic, and lexical levels. The findings underscore the necessity of contrastive teaching methods, multimedia resources, and communicative approaches to enhance proficiency. Recommendations are provided for educators in Uzbekistan and similar multilingual contexts. The relevance of the topic is heightened by Russia’s role in Central Asian education, trade, and diplomacy, where Russian remains a key lingua franca despite the dominance of Uzbek and growing interest in English.

Russian as a foreign language, Uzbek learners, language acquisition difficulties, comparative typology, phonetics, grammar (cases and aspects), vocabulary interference, contrastive teaching methods.

Yakubova, Sh.I., Belykh, L.Kh., & Turakhodjaeva, Yu.V. (2023). Overcoming Challenges: Teaching Russian Language to Uzbek Students at the Philological Institute. International Journal of Advance Scientific Research, 3(5), 168–175. (Pages 170–173 detail the five key challenges: alphabet, phonetics, grammar, vocabulary, cultural context).

Hamrayeva, Y. (2007). O‘zbek va rus tillarining qiyosiy tipologiyasi (ma’ruzalar matni). Qarshi: “Nasaf”. (Specific pages: pp. 6–8 on phonetics; pp. 18–21 on gender and cases; pp. 29–35 on verb aspects and negation; pp. 11–12 on vocabulary interference).

Alimova, M.V., Gutorova, D.G., Kapshukova, T.V., Kozlovskaya, E.S., & Prokopova, I.I. (2021). Problems of learning Russian as a foreign language in a distance format at the pre-university stage. SHS Web of Conferences, 101, 01010. (Technical, methodological, and psychological problems analyzed in detail).

Olimkhujaeva, A. (2026). Common Difficulties in Learning Russian for Uzbek Students. Zenodo. https://zenodo.org/records/18766284 (Emphasizes structural differences in grammar, phonetics, vocabulary, syntax).

Kisselev, O., & Rubina, A. (2024). Mastering Russian Case: Learning Challenges, Current Textbook Approaches, and New Perspectives. Russian Language Journal, 74(1). (Review of case acquisition difficulties).

Ceytlin, S.N. (2024). Case system in learning Russian as a first and second foreign language. Russian Language Studies, 23(4).

Mukhamedova, S., & Kadirova, X. (2022). O‘zbek va rus tillarining qiyosiy tipologiyasi / Sravnitel’naya tipologiya uzbekskogo i russkogo yazykov. Tashkent: Lesson Press. (Comparative morphology and syntax sections).

Wade, T. (2011). A Comprehensive Russian Grammar (3rd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. (Reference for standard Russian grammatical categories).