<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
    <head>
        <style>
            span:before { content: "\00AB"; }
            span:after { content: "\00BB"; }
        </style>
    </head>
    <body>
        <p>
            You should see russian quotes because xml:lang takes precedence:
            <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#C_7">http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/#C_7</a>
        </p>

        <span></span>
    </body>
</html>