Here is a recent example:
Yes, it can be:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/русский
or
http://en.bab.la/dictionary/russian-english/русский
oh and “English” can be a proper noun.
Just an aside on the “Russki” noun-adjective thing: during Khruschev/Brezhnev times there was this Russian diplomat Valentin Zorin (or Valeri Zorin) who looked a bit like Kissinger. So there was a joke in Russia about Kissinger and Zorin meeting at their conversation:
- Скажите, пожалуйста, господин Зорин, вы еврей?
- Я - русский!
- А-а. А я - американский.
Now in something the rest of us can read?
Only because Fransai isn’t a word which has been adopted into American English and repeatedly used as an insult. Wanna come with me as I walk into the black American neighborhood of your choice and I point at the biggest dude I can see and say “mira, un negro”?
And even though français doesn’t have the history of russki or negro, that line is still completely stupid. It makes the speaker look like someone completely nyet kulturny*, if you ask me.
*“uncultured”, transliterated from Russian. Fighting words from what I understand
Well said, Nava.
It’s a joke that goes something like “Tell me, Mr. Zorin, are you Jewish? Zorin: I’m Russian! Kissinger: Uh huh…And I’m American.”
That example doesn’t clarify whether “русский” is being used as a noun or adjective, but Terr’s first sports headline does clearly use “русский” as a noun.
Catching up on connotation and denotation might be good.
Russki is almost always use as a (mild) insult, whatever etymology it has or part-of-speech it is. Language is what it is, what people use.
This just isn’t true. It was common knowledge when I was in Jr. High school, nearly 40 years ago.
English is not Russian, the same rules don’t apply, and nounification of nationality is totally idiosyncratic in English. You can’t be “an English” but you can be “an Australian” “an American” “a German” or “a Korean.” (think about how irregular our system is… you can be a Frenchman but not a Spanishman (and chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature…); a Finn but not a Holl)
Russian does drop the noun at times, leave the adjective to stand as the noun, when the noun is implied and the meaning obvious.
For example in the phrase “kak pah russki?” which means “how do you say that in Russian?” the noun “yazik” = “language” is implied. So it can be that in common phrasings the adjective does indeed act like a standalone noun.
You might want to wait until we see how the Romanian judge scored things. 
May I ask where you went to Junior High School? There may be a regional aspect to this. You and your friends must have gotten more out of seeing A Clockwork Orange than I did! 
It does if you know the context of the joke. Zorin protests that he’s a Russian (using “russki” as a noun). Kissinger deliberately interprets the word as an adjective, and implies Zorin said he was a “Russian [Jew]”.
I hate explaining jokes.
I bow down to your superior pedantry.
J.