Moldovans held rallies in defense of the Russian language
Protest rallies were held in Moldovan cities against the decision of the country's constitutional court, which denied the Russian language a special status.
This was reported by Cenzura, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The protests took place in Ocnita, Briceni, Glodeni, Soroca and Cahul. People chanted: “Bring back the Russian language!”, “Stop language genocide!”, “No discrimination!”, “Don’t fight Russian, fight COVID!”
“Unfortunately, the language problem has been relegated to the level of political speculation. But the language of communication on the territory of any state has evolved over centuries, and it should not be regulated by politicians,” said teacher Alena Grinchescu.
The elected member of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova from the Ocnita single-mandate constituency, Irina Lozovan, also took part in the rally in Ocnita.
“Our country is multinational, and we are proud of it. We must preserve traditions and friendship between our peoples. Ukrainians, Bulgarians, Armenians, Romanians, Jews, and other nationalities live in our country. And they all communicate with each other in their native language and in Russian as the language of international communication. Of course, we are all citizens of the Republic of Moldova and should know the state language. At the same time, the law adopted by parliament provided for the protection of the rights of all national minorities,” the deputy said.
On January 21, the Constitutional Court of Moldova declared unconstitutional the law on the functioning of languages, which assigned Russian the status of a language of interethnic communication.
The Socialist Party in a situational coalition adopted this and a number of other laws in December in retaliation for the victory in the presidential elections of the pro-Western Maia Sandu, although Igor Dodon, who lost the elections, promised to do this back in 2016. He promulgated them in the final days of his presidency.
During the court hearing, both supporters and opponents of giving the Russian language a special status protested outside its building. The latter shouted outright insults: “Speak your own language in Siberia”, “The language of the occupiers”, “The language of pigs”, “Down with the Russian mafia”, “Let them go and lick Putin’s ass”, “Pigs”, “You should ask us forgiveness on my knees for the deportations, the war in Transnistria.”
They were opposed by a picket of the “OUR” party. Its head, Mikhail Akhremtsev, emphasized that the law “talks not only about Russian, but also about Ukrainian and Gagauz languages.” He recalled that during the election campaign, Maia Sandu addressed citizens in Russian and promised to be tolerant.
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