Role of the Russian language in the world

[Andrew Jameson]

Johnson's Russia List
#4600
25 October 2000
davidjohnson at erols.com

#1
Security Council views role of Russian language in the world as
strategically important
Russian news agency RIA

Moscow, 25th October: The spread of the Russian language abroad is a major
plank in Russia's international policy, Oleg Chernov, deputy secretary of
the Russian Security Council deputy secretary, said on Tuesday 24th October
after a meeting of the Council for the Russian Language which reports to
the Russian government.

The Security Council press service told RIA that Chernov told the meeting
that the issue of preserving and strengthening the Russian language's
positions in the world is one related to Russia's strategic interests. The
issue is important to promoting effective activity by Russia in the
economic, scientific, technical, cultural and diplomatic spheres. It
provides a contact that actively helps millions of Russian citizens living
abroad. And it provides support for historical links with other countries
and boosts our country's prestige, Chernov said.

The meeting particularly concentrated on the situation of the Russian
language in countries which formerly were part of the Soviet Union. "We
cannot but be alarmed by a situation where the Russian language is excluded
from the curricula of foreign educational institutions, where the number of
foreign citizens learning Russian is sharply declining and Russian language
departments and faculties in foreign countries are practically receiving no
help from Russia, as far as teaching methods and material and technical
resources are concerned", Chernov said.

He added that the "attempts in several CIS and Baltic states to displace
the Russian language from the system of education, cultural activity and
media are particularly alarming". This considerably "infringes upon the
rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking population in those countries
and hampers the integration processes", he said.

The participants in the meeting expressed their concern over a possible
change in the status of the special federal programme called "The Russian
Language" and plans to move it down to departmental level, the press
service said. The rector of the state institute of the Russian language,
Vitaliy Kostomarov, chaired the meeting.

******
Forwarded by
Andrew Jameson
Chair, Russian Committee, ALL
Reviews Editor, Rusistika
Listowner, allnet, cont-ed-lang, russian-teaching
1 Brook Street, Lancaster LA1 1SL   UK
Tel: 01524 32371  (+44 1524 32371)

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