A view from Odessa: There is no “regional” for Russians - only state!
Odessa - Kyiv, April 29 (Navigator, Artyom Buzila) - The hasty repeal of Kolesnichenko-Kivalov’s “language law” after the Maidan victory provoked protests in the Southeast. And now Russian as the second state language is one of the main demands of the regions, which have been seething with demonstrations for weeks now.
About this in the column for "Navigator" writes an Odessa journalist Artyom Buzila.
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...In Odessa the situation is not much different from the situation in the South-East. The Russian language here has the status of a regional language in the region, in addition, the same status is assigned to certain regions and settlements. In addition, the regional center has a special city program to support the Russian language. However, many view this only as half-hearted measures - the Russian language needs full status as a second state language. Anything else does not cancel discrimination and assimilation.
“The Russian language should have the status of a state language, because Russian today is the native language of more than half of the citizens of Ukraine, despite the fact that in the South-East the percentage of Russian-speaking people exceeds the percentage of Ukrainian-speaking people. Only the state status of the Russian language is fair and logical in such a situation,” says one of the leaders of the Odessa Anti-Maidan, Maria Bilchak, ex-coordinator of the Dozor public movement.
According to Navigator’s interlocutor, the simplest example of infringement of the rights of Russian speakers is the inability to watch foreign films in a cinema with translations in Russian.
“The law on mandatory dubbing of foreign films into Ukrainian was adopted in 2008, and since then foreign films in Russian have not been shown in Odessa cinemas, with the rare exception of “festival” films, which are subject to other laws. And the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law had no impact on this situation,” says Bilchak.
Odessa journalist, editor of the largest local news publication Timer, Yuri Tkachev, is confident that the Russian language should have a constitutional, and not just legislative, status. “The main drawback of the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law is that it is, first of all, a law, which means it can be repealed at any time. Any law is an unstable solution. It’s completely different when it comes to changes being made to the Constitution. These amendments introduce changes for a longer period,” says Tkachev.
According to the journalist, “if changes regarding the status of the Russian language had been made to the Constitution, then this law could have had a better result.”
Mayoral candidate in the May 25 elections, leader of the local cell of the Ukrainian Choice public movement, Vitaly Alaybov, believes that discrimination based on language occurs constantly in the city. “If we talk about the infringement of the Russian language in Odessa, then it is worth talking about the fact that recently the number of schools with Ukrainian as the language of instruction has been constantly growing. As a candidate for mayor of Odessa, I would like to note that now it is important to talk about education. And I believe that we need to pay attention to the increase in schools with Russian as the language of instruction,” said the agency’s interlocutor.
Former governor of the Odessa region Nikolai Skorik, who now represents presidential candidate Sergei Tigipko in the region, is confident that the issue of giving Russian the status of the state language must be considered in Kyiv.
“It is absolutely clear that it is necessary to give a clear definition of the status of the Russian language in order to remove all contradictions on this topic and put an end to endless speculation. This is especially important for the South and East of the country, where the majority of Russian speakers live,” the former governor is confident.
Deputy of the Odessa City Council from the Rodina party, Igor Dimitriev, believes that now the South-East should act on the principle “ask for more - you will get less.” “You should always expect the maximum when achieving any goal. We need to ask for state status for the Russian language in order to get at least some rights for the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine,” the politician is confident.
As for the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law, Dimitriev believes that it was initially “a compromise, and this half-heartedness did not allow the Russian language to strengthen in Ukraine.”
“This law was removed by one decision of the Verkhovna Rada. If Russian had been initially established as the state language, it would not have been so easy to abolish it overnight. Also, the law contained many contradictions, which did not allow it to fully function,” the politician said.
“Giving the Russian language the status of a state language is a matter of respect from one part of citizens to another. The Russian language is the same state-forming language as Ukrainian, which is why it is necessary to make it the second state language,” sums up Rostislav Barda, co-leader of the Odessa Anti-Maidan.
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