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In the spirit of the What is a Word™/Phrase™ series started by JLee, a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.

If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Russian Word™.
Use the examples below to find the rule.

RUSSIAN Words™ Not RUSSIAN Words™
MOTHER SISTER
GENETICS CELL
ERRAND CREDIT
INACCURATE UNTRUE
HELICOPTER ROTORCRAFT
POLICE ARMY
CAGE BIRD
NANOSECOND MILISECOND
HEALER DOCTOR
PRINCE PURPLE
CUBISM PAINTING
SEASHORE SUNSET
BANANA STRAWBERRY

Or, in a CSV:

RUSSIAN Words™,Not RUSSIAN Words™
MOTHER, SISTER
GENETICS, CELL
ERRAND, CREDIT
INACCURATE, UNTRUE
HELICOPTER, ROTORCRAFT
POLICE, ARMY
CAGE, BIRD
NANOSECOND, MILISECOND
HEALER, DOCTOR
PRINCE, PURPLE
CUBISM, PAINTING
SEASHORE, SUNSET
BANANA, STRAWBERRY

These are not the only examples of Russian Words™, many more exist.

What makes a word Russian?

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    $\begingroup$ Дa. It means 'Yes." I apologize for this terrible joke. Not worth a proper answer. $\endgroup$
    – ThePuzzlingPlatypus
    Commented Apr 14, 2019 at 21:05

1 Answer 1

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A Russian Word™

Can be decomposed into pairs of letters, each which is a chemical element symbol. For instance, MOTHER = Mo Th Er, or Molybdenum, Thorium, Erbium. SISTER fails because St is not a chemical element symbol.

The relevance of "Russian":

The person who created the modern periodic table, Mendeleev, was a Russian.

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    $\begingroup$ I like this, and +1! By your rule it is amusing to note that inaccurate spelled correctly is not a Russian word! $\endgroup$
    – El-Guest
    Commented Apr 14, 2019 at 21:14
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    $\begingroup$ Good job ! And good catch, @El-Guest. In fact, spelled correctly (edited the question), it is still a Russian word ;), just made a mistake typing it in this question $\endgroup$
    – Soltius
    Commented Apr 14, 2019 at 21:56

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