Short answers, pulled from the story.
Russia spent 4.7% of its gross domestic product on education in 2018, a figure that rose from 2.7% in 2005 yet still trails the OECD average of 4.9%. The state manages most educational services through two main bodies: the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
The Ministry of Education launched the Unified State Examination program in 2003 to replace traditional entrance exams conducted individually by universities. Legislators enacted the USE in February 2007 making it mandatory for students but optional for universities initially before becoming fully mandatory for all higher education establishments by 2009.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the number of kindergartens dropped sharply from 88,000 institutions serving urban areas in the 1980s to 46,000. Many kindergarten buildings sold off became office spaces irreversibly converted for commercial use while private kindergartens fell from 7% enrollment in 1999 to just 1% by 2005.
Tatar had 2374 schools offering instruction in 1995/96 dropping slightly to 2166 by 2002/03 while maintaining significant presence compared to other minority languages. The total number of general education institutions with instruction in peoples' languages dropped from 6826 in 1995/96 to 6334 by 2002/03.
Russia co-signed the Bologna Declaration in 2003 while migrating from its traditional five-year specialist diploma model toward Western academic degrees. In October 2007, a law replaced the old system with a two-tiered approach featuring four-year bachelor degrees followed by two-year master's programs.