The Rada Speaker Vladimir Litvin is concerned over the Ukrainian language being actually ousted by the Russian language. It may appear that Mr. Litvin is taking the side of Russophobes who are quite active in Ukraine nowadays.
Vladimir Litvin thinks that the Russian language is more competitive than the Ukrainian, and if the former is approved as Ukraine's second state language, Ukrainian mova (language) can be ousted even from the official circles. In an in interview with the VOR, the Head of the Kiev-based Centre for Political Studies, Mikhail Pogrebinsky, said that these concerns are valid.
"Indeed, if the Russian became the country's second official language, the Ukrainian would be used less frequently, first of all because it is weaker from the historical and cultural points of view".
However, Mr. Pogrebinsky was bewildered to hear the Rada Speaker comment on the issue...
"I think the real problem is that the rights of millions of the Russian-speaking citizens are being deprived in Ukraine. Over the past five years the Russian language and culture have been ousted from all spheres in Ukraine. And now that the newly elected President Yanukovich has promised to protect the Russian-speaking population, we may hope that things will go differently".
The status of the Russian language was one of the key issues on Mr. Yanukovich`s pre-election agenda. Apart from other things, he promised to strengthen the status of the Russian language in mass media. Numerous restrictions on the use of the Russian language were introduced in Ukraine in recent years. Mr. Yanukovich is going to remove them and allow the citizens speak their native tongues.
The Rada plans to revise the 2007 bill on obligatory translation of all films into Ukrainian. This law prevented the people of Ukraine from watching some 150 latest foreign films. And some 30 movie theatres were closed after the previous Cabinet had banned demonstration of Russian films even with Ukrainian subtitles.
However, it is clear that neither the Rada nor the President is going to make Russian a major language in Ukraine and change the Constitution. Language policy is a very thorny issue, and it requires a very careful approach.
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