Syrian school students will get the opportunity to choose Russian as a second foreign language for learning starting from the next academic year.

      English is currently the mandatory first foreign language taught to children in schools in the war-torn Arabic country. Students can also add French as a second language in the fifth grade. France controlled Syria in 1923-1943.

      But now Russian will be available as an alternative to French, the Syrian Minister of Education, Hazwane al-Wazz, was cited Sunday by the ministry’s website as saying.

      The statement did not elaborate on the reasons for the decision beyond saying that students will be responsible for building “the future of the nation.”

      Russia, which has ties to the Syrian leadership since Soviet times, emerged as the main international backer of the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Syria has a Russian diaspora estimated at several tens of thousands, the majority of them Russian wives of Syrians who studied or worked in Russia.