Under the "gas curtain" of the language

Euro 2012 is completed, the fanzone on the Maidan is rolled up, but passions literally boil in hot Kyiv. The Verkhovna Rada adopted in the second reading the bill “On the Basics of the State Language Policy”, this law in local media is called only “scandalous”, its essence is that it expands the sphere of application of the Russian language. In 13 regions - mainly in the south and east of Ukraine - the Russian language can become one of the language of office work. In other words, Russian-speaking officials-de facto-regions legitimized their right to speak and write in Russian (or in the language that seems to them to Russian). The current Maidan passions boil about the Law of the Bureau, and, by and large, is decorative and political.

Hardly one of the opponents and defenders of this law, let's say more-hardly one of the voting and fundamentally not voting for it, seriously read all its editions, provisions and numerous amendments. The language question in Ukrainian politics is an insistent symbolic capital, a kind of buzz, this question is predictably aggravated during election campaigns, and it is barely remembered in the intervals between the elections. At this time, Ukrainian politicians and their electorate speak and read the way they used to say and read: others - in two languages, others in one of two. The question of the survival of the language, the number of native speakers of which is calculated by tens of millions, is a speculative issue, and this equally applies to both Russian and Ukrainian. However, the regionals with all possible violations of the procedures managed to carry out their law until the summer holidays, and now they have something to present the electorate, and even more so. The Party of Regions is operating with might and main pathos: we are steep boys, we made them (Ukrainian media vying cited the registry of the regional deputy Mikhail Chechetov, who, after voting under sacramental law No. 9073, told the journalists: “We divorced them like kittens”). "They", i.e. The opposition, now we get glasses on a pathos of a different kind - Victimnom. Also quite familiar and experienced on the “nuclear electorate”, the position, again, the election rhetoric was enriched with the theme of the “neighboring state”, which “conducting” Ukrainian politics and as if in exchange for the adoption of the notorious Law No. 9073 will reduce gas prices.

It seems that everyone, even speaker Vladimir Litvin, spectacularly absent in the vote and then just as effectively “slapping the door”, has been unlocked in the scandalous procedure. From now on, he will also have something to present to his Zhytomyr voters and how to bargain with the regionals. By the way, the Litvin faction voted for the law almost in full force (18 out of 20 deputies).

The defenders of the Ukrainian language declared “national mobilization” and occupied the area adjacent to Maidan. The square is called European, and in the center of its Ukrainian house. The area is small and uncomfortable, an order of magnitude smaller than the Maidan, and the protest, repeat, decorative. From time to time, protesters and Berkutovites conduct demonstrative battles for ... dry closets. And gas checkers “include” alternately activists of “Freedom” or “Berkutovites”. At some point, Vitaly Klitschko went to the square and spoke to Ukrainian language defenders. Not without difficulty, but he tried. The policy boxer has his own reason: there is a chance that Yulia Tymoshenko will prefer his Arseniy Yatsenyuk and it will be he will become the first number in the opposition list.

Meanwhile, the majority of the Rada “under the noise” of the language rally adopted several, in fact, scandalous laws, against which, in any other situation, not emotional, but rational, the opposition should have to death: from now on, the authorities actually close information about government procurement - this law was adopted on July 4, when the opposition deputies distributed interviews under the Ukrainian house. In the same package, the majority of the simplification of barter procedures, the “additional financing” of the Prosecutor General’s Office - was taken by 174 million hryvnias. He received a billion hryvnia to the Central Election Commission, more than two more billion will go to the Donbass to support the coal industry. Under the “gas curtain” of the language rally, the current composition of the Rada actually “rewritten” the budget. Voting on these, frankly corruption, laws passed easily and routinely. Corruption in Ukraine has not yet become the subject of a street rally, or the case is language passions.