Four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and twelve years after the annexation of Crimea, Russian-speaking communities outside the Russian Federation occupy an increasingly ambiguous and politicized position. Instrumentalized by the Kremlin as a supposed population in need of protection, Russophones have been repeatedly invoked to justify military aggression, political interference, and claims of extraterritorial influence. As a result, Russian speakers living beyond Russia’s borders are often perceived by their surrounding societies and states as a potential security risk, a source of uncertainty, or an object of suspicion—regardless of their actual political loyalties, identities, or lived experiences. This roundtable brings together scholars from literature studies, political science, linguistics, and anthropology to examine how these dynamics unfold across different regional contexts. Focusing on Russophone communities in Ukraine, the Baltic states, Kazakhstan, and other countries, the discussion explores how war, imperial legacies, and shifting geopolitical alignments have reshaped the meanings attached to the Russian language and to Russophone identities. The panel addresses several interrelated questions: How have Russian-speaking communities been reclassified, securitized, or marginalized since 2014 and especially since 2022? What new uncertainties—legal, social, cultural, and political—have emerged for these populations? How do Russophone individuals and groups respond to these pressures through strategies of distancing, adaptation, rearticulation of identity, or political mobilization? At the same time, how do non-Russophone societies and state institutions negotiate the tension between security concerns and minority rights? How have Russophone cultures responded to this ongoing state of uncertainty? By placing diverse case studies in dialogue, the roundtable moves beyond monolithic understandings of “Russian speakers” and highlights the heterogeneity of Russophone experiences. It aims to contribute to broader debates on language and power, diaspora politics and cultures, securitization, and post-imperial transformations in times of war, offering comparative insights into how uncertainty is produced, managed, and contested across different social and political settings.