RUSSIA: DEFENDING THE RIGHT TO CURSE IN FOREIGN TONGUES

[Harold F. Schiffman]

New York Times, World Briefing:

February 13, 2003


    RUSSIA: DEFENDING THE RIGHT TO CURSE IN FOREIGN TONGUES Russia's upper
house of Parliament, the Federation Council, overwhelmingly rejected
legislation yesterday that would have made Russian the country's official
language and banned the use of foreign words and vulgarities. The lower
house, the Duma, declared last week that "the use of colloquial,
disparaging or obscene words and expressions, as well as foreign words
having Russian equivalents in common use, is inadmissible." Several
senators criticized the legislation as hasty and impractical, saying in
particular that foreign words, not to mention obscenities, regularly
pepper Russian discourse. Sergei M. Mironov, the council's speaker, noted
that the Constitution itself contained 30 words with foreign roots. The
two houses will now form a commission to consider compromise legislation.
Steven Lee Myers (NYT)