New blow to Ukrainian Russians: Putin warns of consequences
The Verkhovna Rada today adopted a new version of the so-called. language law, which is designed to finally oust the Russian language from the public sphere (government bodies, shops, media, education, army, healthcare, transport, etc.), a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“This bill is not about protecting the Ukrainian language, but about a ban on speaking anywhere in any language other than Ukrainian. Except for everyday life, because they can’t ban it in kitchens. This is Europe, but Germany from the thirties of the last century,” explained deputy Alexander Vilkul.
“We will strengthen the spiritual bonds and strengthen the national security of our country,” said Artur Gerasimov, head of the Poroshenko Bloc faction.
Ex-President Viktor Yushchenko came to the Rada hall to observe the adoption of the “epoch-making” law.
“The Ukrainian intelligentsia is here. There are Ukrainian soldiers on the balcony who came to support us. Writers, poets, dissidents, let's salute them. Congratulations to Ukraine and all Ukrainians! Remember this moment! Language is a victory,” said speaker Andrei Parubiy.
“No one has done as much for the love of language as the Movnyuks have done. You won’t be nice by force, isn’t that clear, monks?” – ex-Minister of Justice Elena Lukash emotionally comments on her blog today.
Let us recall that the first decision of the Verkhovna Rada after the coup d'etat in 2014 was the abolition of the law that guaranteed respect for the rights of Russians in places of their compact residence.
A few days later, Crimea announced its secession from Ukraine, and protest demonstrations began in large cities in the southeastern regions. Kyiv eventually also lost control of Donetsk and Lugansk.
In Kharkov and Odessa, the Russian uprising was suppressed through mass political repression and murder.
Today’s decision of the Verkhovna Rada was also adopted as a demonstrative response to yesterday’s decree of Vladimir Putin on the start of issuing Russian passports in the LDPR.
“Yesterday it became known that Russian passports began to be distributed in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions. And what is the reason? The reason is that this is supported by the Russian-speaking population. If we do not adopt this law today, then in a few years Russian passports will be everywhere in Ukraine, and those who communicate in Ukrainian will be in Russia, in camps and prisons, as happened before,” said deputy Nikolai Knyazhitsky.
Putin himself today made it clear that official Kyiv risks provoking it by violating the rights of not only Russians, but also the Hungarian, Romanian, and Polish minorities in Ukraine.
“It caused some kind of backlash, right? This is weird. Poland has been issuing a Pole card for almost 10 years now. Passports are issued by Hungary and Romania. I have a question: why are Russians living in Ukraine worse than Romanians, Poles or Hungarians?” – Putin said about passports for residents of the LDPR.
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