Sometimes, but not always, the same kinds of people who learn Arabic, Farsi, Pashtun, and Chinese these days.
Actually, I think it would be much more useful to learn Manderin than French.
My son had to make the choice last year to learn French or Spanish in middle school.
Given the two choices I told him to go with Spanish.
However, I would have gone with Manderine if that was available.
“Chinese” isn’t a language and we aren’t involved in a Cold War of mutually assured destruction with anyone today.
My point was that these two hippy-dippy lefties were probably learning Russian, not for patriotic service to the United States or the West, but quite the opposite...either to stick a needle in the eye of the great capitalist satan or worse, for ulterior motives. Its this same half-baked, jackassed, I-hate-America mentality that found Bill Clinton in Moscow during the 1970’s.