Ukraine: Lugansk court ‘outlaws’ Russian language

[Harold Schiffman]

 Lugansk court 'outlaws' Russian language

28.12.2007, 21.49

DONETSK, December 28 (Itar-Tass) -- The Lugansk Leninsky District
Court has 'outlawed' the Russian language. Meanwhile, the majority of
residents of the Lugansk region say that Russian is their native
tongue.  The judgment invalidated the regional court's resolution of
April 25, 2006, which applied the regional status to the Russian
language.  The Lugansk regional prosecutor and local organizations of
Ukrainian nationalists challenged the resolution immediately, yet
their efforts were unsuccessful for 18 months.

In the opinion of sociologists and leaders of ethnic Russian
organizations, the judgment reflects a new onslaught on the Russian
language in Ukraine. Thursday statements by President Viktor
Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko are an indirect proof
to that. "I belong to citizens, who respect the constitution. The
constitution says that Ukraine has the only one state language,
Ukrainian," the president said, adding that he would vote against the
state status of the Russian language at the appropriate referendum.
There must be only one state language in Ukraine, Ukrainian,
Timoshenko said. "A change of the language policy will cause a
collision," she said.


  http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=12224842&PageNum=0

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