The article identifies the problems faced by teachers in the process of teaching bilinguals in the Russian-speaking environment. Different groups of such students are distinguished, the boundaries of the concepts of "Russian as a foreign language" and "Russian as a foreign language" are clarified. In the field of Russian language teaching the primary tasks facing the teachers of the Russian for foreigners are set. The acuteness of the situation is emphasized, attention is paid to the factors that hinder its normalization.