Nezavisimaya Gazeta
July 5, 2010
Russian language loses its status [translation from JRL]
The Ukrainian leadership provoked a new wave of "linguistic sovereignty"
By Tatiana Ivzhenko (Kiev)
Ukraine is facing another language war: recently, Leninsky District Court of Sevastopol had overturned the decision made by the Sevastopol City Council on awarding Russian a regional language status. At the same time, the resolution, adopted by the Supreme Soviet of Crimea on May 26, on implementation of constitutional guarantees on the free use of the Russian language, which implies a de facto rise of status of the Russian language in the autonomy, remains in force. All the confusion could be settled by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, although deputies note that the language politics are once again being influenced by the election campaign.
Late last week, the Ukrainian parliament had scheduled local elections for October 31. These election results will determine if the ruling Party of Regions will be able to complete the formation of a rigid vertical of power or be forced to deal with the powerful opposition, represented by regional structures. Therefore, it looks as though all pressing issues, capable of splitting the society, are being set aside until after the elections one of which is the language issue.
The position to grant the Russian language a status of the second official state language was a part of the election campaign program of the Party of Regions and Viktor Yanukovich. Soon after the elections, an ally of the newly-elected president, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, Anna German, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta (NG) that an immediate implementation of the campaign promise should not be expected. She explained that it requires a complex and lengthy procedure of amending the Ukrainian Constitution. "When supporters of the idea to raise the Russian language to the official state level have a constitutional majority of 300 votes in the Verkhovna Rada, then this issue may be resolved," said German.
She added that Yanukovich will not wait until the number of allies in the parliament increases, and will, instead, resolve the problem by other means: "We could implement the European Charter for Regional of Minority Languages in the Ukrainian legislation, which will allow giving Russian a regional status in places with Russian-speaking population".
In mid-May, a corresponding bill was registered in the parliament by Party of Regions deputy Vadim Kolesnichenko. He explained that in case the document is adopted, local authorities will be able to independently make decisions on regional language or languages "in places where more than 10% speak the regional language". The deputy does expect the bill to be approved before the summer legislative recess, although he did caution: "There is one sword of Damocles, which is also known as 'the approaching [local] elections'". However, Kolesnichenko was talking about the elections in the context of the Party of Regions' implementation of its election pledges. Meanwhile, Yanukovich's current allies in the parliamentary coalition view the problem differently.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Vladimir Litvin, whose faction is part of the coalition, fears that the language issue will deepen the split of Ukraine. Many experts have criticized Litvin, suspecting him in an attempt to pass between two fires by neither supporting the idea of raising the Russian language's status nor the maintenance of the linguistic status-quo.
The situation, developing around the status of the Russian language, could divide the country.
This opinion is strongly shared by the Communist Party, which had registered its own language law much earlier than Kolesnikov had submitted his document. Its author, Deputy Leonid Grach, believes that many politicians are, once again, trying to exploit the language issue with the objective to benefit at the elections, but are not planning to change anything about the situation that has unfolded in Ukraine. He recalls that Yanukovich promised to raise the status of Russian to the level of an official state language in 2004 and in 2009, but in the end, distanced himself from the process.
Vadim Kolesnichenko agrees that "Russian is the native language for 30% of the population, all other national minority languages amount to 0.4%". That is precisely why he is convinced that adoption of his draft law, will, de facto, lead to upgrading the status of Russian on most territories.
Because resolution of the question is once again being delayed and is drowning in procedural complexities, in late May, the Supreme Soviet of Crimea had adopted a decision to raise the status of Russian on the territory of the autonomy. This prompted protests from Crimea's Tatars and national-democratic forces in Kiev. Deputies of Viktor Yushchenko's party insisted that the prosecutor general initiates legal action in connection to the violation of the Constitution of Ukraine. Even Party of Regions deputies agree that their Crimean colleagues had put the cart before the horse by refusing to wait until the issue is settled at the national level. "They will have Supreme Soviet elections in the fall; that is why they are in a hurry to score some points," a member of the ruling coalition who agrees with the view that, in doing so, Crimea's deputies have compromised the ratings of the Party of Regions told NG. Neither Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office nor the Ministry of Justice had reacted to the situation. Meanwhile, the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine is preparing to declare "Russian language sovereignty".
In order to save face and keep the situation under control, central authorities are forced to act the same as Viktor Yushchenko's allies did in 2006 through the courts. The former president's team managed to extinguish the "language fire" with harsh judicial verdicts, which accused the local authorities of exceeding their limits of authority and violation of the Constitution. The new decision of the Sevastopol District Court continues the old tradition. However, the problem cannot be resolved without it being regulated by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. It looks as though one document won't be enough. Even its author, Kolesnikov, admits that in the years since its independence, Ukraine has adopted "more than 100 laws, which directly prohibit the use of Russian language and other national minority languages". Meanwhile, the authorities, who are busy tackling economic problems and preparing for the local elections, do not have enough time to reconcile these documents, raising the status of Russian, if not to the official state level, then at least to the level of an official language for documentation.
