Ukrainan, Russian language fight goes to core of nation.
With elections just five months away, the fight for votes and Ukraine’s state language is on – literally.
Critics say President Viktor Yanukovych’s party, with its plunging popularity, is adopting desperate measures to mobilize votes in predominantly Russian-speaking parts of the nation.
Facing the prospects of losing a majority in parliament to the political opposition, the Party of Regions is pushing hard to win votes by enhancing the status of the Russian language, which is popular especially in the heavily populated eastern and southern regions.
However, many Ukrainians – particularly in central and western regions – don’t want to support any measure that undermines the Ukrainian language, whose popularity is viewed as synonymous with strong statehood.
Pro-presidential lawmakers brought the controversial legislation towards a vote on May 24, eliciting opposition lawmakers to forcefully bloc the voting, triggering some of the most violent brawls the legislature has seen.
Injuries were reported by both sides, with some bloodied opposition lawmakers being rushed to hospital by ambulance. But with control over parliament hanging in the balance, the pro-presidential party has pledged a revote on the issue in a week or so, setting the stage for another round of bouts and beatings between both sides.
If adopted, the legislation would allow regional councils throughout Ukraine to sanction the use in formal documents and use by state institutions of any language that is spoken in the vicinity by “minorities” representing at least 10 percent of the local population.
The fear of Ukrainian language proponents is that such legislation would de facto make the Russian language a second state language, marginalizing Ukrainian as in Soviet days.
Politically, the issue could polarize voters on an east-west axis, helping Yanukovych’s party regain support from its eastern base.
Ironically, however, the language issue does not even rank among the top 10 issues for voters, according to sociological firms. Citizens’ main priorities, according to polls, are economic in nature. M-ost complain about corruption, low living standards and salaries, high inflation as well as bureaucracy and taxes that choke their businesses.
“Obstinate attempts of members of the parliamentary majority to pass the bill… are associated mainly with the desire of the ruling Party of Regions to increase its support of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine leading up to the parliamentary elections this October,” reads a recent report of the Democratic Initiative Foundation, a Kyiv-based think tank.
Under fire from the West for political persecution and cronyism, Yanukovych’s camp is fighting an uphill battle.
A recent poll by Kyiv’s Razumkov think tank forecast that the united opposition parties of jailed leader Yulia Tymoshenko and Arseniy Yatseniuk would muster 19.6 percent of votes, several percentage points higher than the Regions Party. Heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko’s opposition UDAR party stands to get about 8.5 percent voter support. Currently the Communists would barely cross the 5 percent threshold.
According to a recent poll conducted by Rating, a polling firm, 46 percent of Ukrainians are against giving Russian the status as second official state language while 45 percent support it.
Both Yanukovych and his Party of Regions came to power pledging to improve living standards by adopting pro-market reforms, and to make Russian a second state language. For many voters, they have not delivered on either promise.
Viktor Nebozhenko, a political analyst, told to Ukraine’s Ligabusiness inform news website that by pushing the legislation, the Party of Regions will not turn up empty handed by reporting on what has basically been “two missed years.”
But the threat of the language legislation is also playing into the political interests of the opposition.
Putting up a hard fight against this legislation also “suits the opposition,” Nebozhenko said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Yuriy Onyshkiv can be reached at [email protected].
