Genetic studies on Russians



Genetic studies show that Russians are closest to Poles, Belarusians, Ukrainians and to other Slavs as well as to Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Hungarians.

Y-DNA
Eight Y chromosome haplogroup subclades, including R1a, N3, I1b, R1b, I2a, J2, N2, and E3b all together, account for >95% of the total Russian Y chromosomal pool. Of the 1228 samples, 11/1228 (0.9%) were classified up to the root level of haplogroups F and K. Only 9/1228 samples (0.7%) fell into haplogroups C, Q, and R2 which are specific to East and South Asian populations.

The top four Y-DNA haplogroups among the sample of 1228 Russians are:
 * Haplogroup R1a (Y-DNA) – with an average of 53.4%
 * Haplogroup I (Y-DNA) – with an average of 23.5%
 * Haplogroup N (Y-DNA) with an average of 17.3%
 * Haplogroup R1b (Y-DNA) – with an average of 5.8%

Eight Y chromosome haplogroup subclades, including R1a, N3, I1b, R1b, I1a, J2, N2, and E3b all together, account for >95% of the total Russian Y chromosomal pool. Of the 1228 samples, 11/1228 (0.9%) were classified up to the root level of haplogroups F and K. Only 9/1228 samples (0.7%) fell into haplogroups C, Q, and R2 which are specific to East and South Asian populations.

mtDNA
The mitochondrial gene pool of Russians are represented by mtDNA types belonging to typical West Eurasian groups. East Eurasian admixture was shown to be minimal and existed in low frequencies in the form of Haplogroup M. The same studies indicate Eurasian haplogroups present at a frequency of 97.8% and 98.5% among a sample of 325 and 201 Russians respectively.

Autosomal DNA
Autosomally, Russians are most similar to populations in Eastern Europe followed by other Eurasian groups. Genetic research suggests higher amounts of Siberian admixture among Northern Russians than Central and Southern Russians. Eastern Siberian-like ancestry was found at an average frequency of ~12% among Northern Russians. This Eastern Siberian-like ancestry is maximized among modern Nganasan people and a Bronze Age specimen from Southern Siberia (Krasnoyarsk_Krai_BA), suggesting the assimilation and slavification of Uralic ethnic groups during the expansion of early Russians. Other Russians carried it at a lower frequency of around 4% similarly to other Slavic populations. A study by Wang et al. argued that the levels of "Eastern Siberian" ancestry among Russians, but also Finns, may be linked to the diffusion of paternal haplogroup N-M231.

A large full-genome study by Triska et al. 2017 on Russians and other ethnic groups, stretching from the Baltic region to Lake Baikal, found that Russians are closely related to other Slavic Peoples, followed by other European populations. According to the Russian researchers, "Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians have almost identical proportions of Caucasus and Northern European components and have virtually no Asian influence", contradicting the previous studies mentioned. However, many ethnic minority groups from Russia were found to be characterized by the presence of significant higher amounts of Asian components, yet European ancestry also makes up the majority of their respective gene pool: "European components account for 50% - 90% of admixture vectors in both Turkic and Uralic speakers of the Volga-Ural region". Other ethnic minorities, such as from the Caucasus region, harbored predominantly "Caucasus and Iranian" components.

A genome-wide sequence analysis on the population of Russia by Zhernakova et al. 2020, found that Russia as a whole, displays significant heterogeneity. Ethnic Russians primarily descended from the early Slavic peoples, which diverged from other Indo-Europeans, and expanded from Eastern Europe eastwards. Subsequently Russians expanded further eastwards, later coming into contact with various other groups, such as Uralic, Turkic, Iranian, Mongolic and Tungusic peoples as well as Paleo-Siberian groups of Siberia. Geneflow between Asian minority groups and Russians contributed to the overall pattern of genome diversity across the different ethno-linguistic groups of Russia.