You're reading: Ukraine rushes through Russian language bill

Ukraine's parliament on July 3 rushed through a contentious draft law upgrading the status of the Russian language, sparking scuffles between pro-government and opposition deputies who fear it will boost the country's ties to Russia.

The chamber approved the bill in a second and final reading minutes after a surprise proposal by one of the majority party leaders, giving opponents little time to cast their vote.


“Every (procedure) that could be violated has been violated,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the leader of the largest opposition bloc, told reporters after the vote.


Opposition MPs tried and failed to physically stop the speaker from calling the vote, provoking scuffles with members of the ruling party. When that failed, they walked out in protest.


Language policy is an emotive subject in the former Soviet republic of 45 million people whose state language is Ukrainian, but where a significant number of people speak Russian as their mother tongue.


If signed into law by President Viktor Yanukovych – the last stage in the approval process – the bill would recognise Russian as a “regional” language in predominantly Russian-speaking areas such as Yanukovych’s home region of Donetsk, enabling its use in the public service.


Supporters of the bill, drafted by members of President Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions, argue it will make life easier for Ukraine’s large Russian-speaking population, allowing their children to receive schooling in their mother tongue.


Opponents regard the use of Ukrainian as a potent symbol of sovereignty, however, and say official recognition of the Russian language will keep Ukraine in Moscow’s sphere of influence while diluting the country’s national identity.


They say the bill was pushed through in order to win back disenchanted voters in the government’s Russian-speaking power base in eastern Ukraine ahead of a parliamentary election in October.


Yanukovych can now either sign it into law or veto it, a move that would win him some support in western Ukraine where the majority of voters speak Ukrainian.


“Yanukovych will sign the bill, he will act in the interests of his party and the bill serves the interests of the Regions in the run-up to the elections,” Volodymyr Fesenko, a political analyst, predicted.


Russia – where the authorities complain that the language rights of Russian speakers in Ukraine are being violated – would welcome the law.

Ukrainian was banned in schools and printing presses in parts of Ukraine that were under Russian rule in the 19th century. Russian was also the preferred medium of communications for much of the Soviet era when Ukraine was ruled from Moscow.