Chechens
In 1989, 73.4% spoke Russian, though this figure has declined due to the wars for a large number of reasons (including the lack of proper education, the refusal to learn the language, and the mass dispersal of the Chechen diaspora due to the war). Chechens in the diaspora often speak the language of the country they live in (English, German, Arabic, Polish, Georgian, etc.).
Chechen Kurds
While it was already reported by Kurdish writer Mehmet Şerif Fırat, in his description of Varto in 1948 that the Chechens there had forgotten the Chechen language, the Turkish state, in a secret report in 1987, claimed that the Chechens spoke Kurdish as their mother tongue.