Translated material
The Russian language brought Kyiv to unrest
Photo: ReutersAfter the adoption of the law “On the Fundamentals of State Language Policy,” rallies began in Ukraine, oppositionists went on a hunger strike, and deputies threatened to resign.
The essence of the bill, initiated by deputies of the ruling Party of Regions, is to improve the status of non-state languages in Ukraine. In particular, we are talking about the Russian language. As a result, according to the document, Russian acquires the status of a regional language if at least 10% of the population lives in the region who consider Russian their native language.
The bill was adopted in the first reading in early June. The opposition opposed it and tried to block the bill, issuing more than two thousand amendments so that the Verkhovna Rada would not have time to make a decision before the parliamentary holidays. Despite the fact that Verkhovna Rada Speaker Vladimir Lytvyn said that the bill was not even going to be submitted for consideration in the near future, the document was adopted in the second reading without taking into account those amendments. In order for the law to be passed, 226 votes were needed. The “language” bill in the Rada was supported by 248 deputies out of 450. “Evaluate the beauty of the game. We bred them like kittens. I don’t know what they will do in the elections,” Mikhail Chechetov, a member of the Party of Regions, commented on the situation. After this, Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and his deputy Mykola Tomenko announced that they were resigning.
The offended opposition staged a protest. On the evening of July 3, about 700 opponents of the bill gathered near the Ukrainian House building. The protest did not turn out to be peaceful - clashes broke out, resulting in 10 employees of the Berkut special forces being injured. In addition, opposition member of the Udar party, boxer Vitaliy Klitschko, who was protesting against the law, suffered from tear gas and received a minor cut on his hand from a piece of glass from a broken window. “Everything that is happening today is organized specifically to distract people’s attention from the difficult situation in the country. The language issue is one of the main problems in Ukraine,” Klitschko told Izvestia , “it needs to be resolved legislatively in parliament, and not by fights between people and special forces." After washing his eyes with water, Klitschko returned to the rally.
Seven deputies of the opposition party "Our Ukraine - People's Self-Defense" declared an indefinite hunger strike.
A deputy from the Our Ukraine - People's Self-Defense faction, Vyacheslav Kirilenko , who went on a hunger strike to protest against the Russian language law, told PublicPost that he was not going to give up:
Our hunger strike continues, the rally that took place all night continues. We are holding on. The fight continues. I feel great, although my voice has weakened because I had to perform and speak a lot. We do not use force, we act exclusively peacefully.
— Why are you protesting against the Russian language law?
The law was passed unconstitutionally.
— Why did you decide to use such a harsh method - go on a hunger strike?
Maybe you have other methods, but we, in Ukraine, have no other methods. This is our choice.
- And what do you want to achieve?
As a result, we will achieve the recognition of the vote as invalid. In my opinion, there can be no other options.
Now there are no clashes near the Ukrainian House on European Square, several dozen people continue to stand, the bulk of them are representatives of national patriots. Saken Aimurzaev, a correspondent for Echo of Moscow in Kyiv, told PublicPost about this. “From Moscow it seems that people took pitchforks and mops and went to defend the Ukrainian language, in fact this is not so. Now there are mostly young guys in the square, no grandmothers. The main politicians from the national patriots have already left,” Aimurzaev said.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was planning to hold a conference on July 4, but canceled it and arranged a meeting with deputies who supported the law “On the Fundamentals of State Language Policy.” Yanukovych believes that if the political crisis cannot be overcome, early elections to the Rada will have to be held.
Blog Conflict
Ukrainian and Russian bloggers are actively discussing this story.
Journalist Alexander Chalenko on the Ukrayinska Pravda blog : I came to Yanukovych’s press conference at 11.30 at the Ukrainian House. She's gone. Canceled. About 500-700 Svidomites and Natsiks are fighting against the Russian language. There are very few of them. It’s just that Russian-speaking Kiev residents remained indifferent to the “protection” of Ukrainian language. It's not their native language. They like Elton John. 100 thousand people came to his concert. <...>
Economist Boris Kushniruk on the Ukrayinska Pravda blog : Everyone understands perfectly well that the main goal of adopting the law “on languages” is to divert the attention of citizens from acute problems in the country: increasing sovereign debt, the inevitable collapse of the national currency, the inevitable slide of the Ukrainian economy into a long-term depression, with the progressive social stratification of society, in which a handful of oligarchs are getting rich, and millions of Ukrainians are actually acquiring the status of beggars, as well as a catastrophically decreasing number of people who can be classified as the middle class. <...> (Translation by PublicPost.)
Oleg Tyagnibok, head of the all-Ukrainian association “Svoboda” on the Ukrayinska Pravda blog : Litvin resigned. Yanukovych canceled the final press conference. The Ukrainians repelled the powerful attacks of the Berkut. This is what the strength of the Ukrainian spirit and the will to win means. Thanks to everyone who defends Ukrainian values in this fight. We continue national mobilization. <...> (Translation by PublicPost.)
Journalist Andrei Chernikov on the Ukrayinska Pravda blog : In order not to start a long conversation about language law, I would like to point out a few fun facts.
1. There is no parliament in Ukraine, since decisions are made not in disputes, but in competitions to see who will kick whom out of the session hall. It’s the same as if Klitschko locks his opponent in his own house and throws away the key, and then comes to the ring alone.
2. Kolesnichenko and Kivalov, as well as all the scum from the Party of Regions and their friendly parties, wanted to give a damn about the people. So, I wrote this - and I laughed a little at what a banality I said. Captain Obvious.
3. Among my friends there is not a single person who would be happy about this law. I don’t even need opinion polls to understand what people are breathing.
4. My Russian-speaking friends are also against this law.
5. Neither me nor my friends and relatives have ever been oppressed by anyone for using the Russian language. Paradoxically, even under the USSR I was not oppressed for speaking Ukrainian; it was then that, on the contrary, I was taught to speak and write Ukrainian.
6. I have not heard and do not hear gratitude from people for this law. The other day I was in Kharkov with my mother, father, brothers and sisters - they do not suffer from Ukrainization, and it never occurred to them to hate the Ukrainian, even the most Western dialect.
7. There is only one bright mind in the Verkhovna Rada - Chechetov. You can see right through his head due to the lack of obstacles. He is the only honest man, because his tongue is boneless.
8. Russian speakers are for Ukrainian. But this is no longer about Chechetov.
9. The next step of the authorities, we must understand, will be the translation of the Ukrainian anthem into Russian? Following the example of Putin, who rewrote the anthem of the Union? I feel sorry for our football team, which will sing, some into the forest, some into the firewood...
Glory to Ukraine!
Blogger from Moscow 
It's a circus, isn't it? Ugh, what disgusting! And why, one wonders, were they beating each other’s faces?
Kive blogger 
Well, they accepted - so what? Isn’t it clear that before the elections some demonstrated “concern” for their own voters, playing the language card, since “the reduction was already in place” (as was written on the billboards before the elections) did not happen. The latter portrayed righteous anger and other dynamics in the same way (again, in view of the elections).
So?.. One of my friends (I won’t point the finger), without expecting anything from the government, simply sent his child to a Russian school. What's the problem? Send your children to Ukrainian schools and read Ukrainian classics with them in the evenings, talk to them in everyday life in Ukrainian (and talk correctly, without surzhik). And you will be happy.
Blogger from Ukraine Yelena Aleksandrovna : Nobody forces you to speak the language, but you need to know it, especially if you have a passport of a citizen of a given state. If your brain cells really aren't enough to learn a fairly simple language, I feel sorry for you. Therefore, I feel sorry for the president and prime minister, who do not know either Russian or Ukrainian, and pass laws for the same idiots as themselves.
Kiev blogger under the nickname sabrina73 : Actually, it is clear that this is more of a farce, and not, as I would like to believe, the first step for RUSSIAN as a SECOND NATIONAL. For the Regions, this is the last opportunity not to completely screw up their ratings before the elections. All sorts of Yatsenyuks, etc. - also the last chance to score the minimum passing percentage. It's not very pleasant to watch all this. But I still want to believe that the Regions will finish what they started. I think Yanukovych is interested in signing the law. Actually, the “Svobodovites” are not such a large percentage, and the Russian-speaking population has always been its voters.
Ukrainian blogger shiitman : The law on languages has been adopted. Let's analyze the real political consequences.
1) The regions received a small electorate. Nationally concerned Russians, who would be ready to vote for the Communist Party of Ukraine or something more marginal at the level of the PSPU or even small-town Orthodox Cossack sects, will now choose the PR.
2) National Democrats and Nazis will ooze Russophobia of the highest standard, so even Russian-speaking voters who are not very concerned about the national issue, but are incapable of reflection and watch TV, will still vote for the Party of Regions. Just to protect yourself from psychopaths like Irina Farion.
3) Doniy, Parubiy, Arev and other national demo leaders are experiencing defeat. The patriotic sector of civil society is demoralized. A shameful loss outright. Depression reigns in the camp of national liberals, both party and non-party.
4) The ultra-right - on the contrary, is on the rise. They will explain the defeat in the imaginary struggle by the “toothlessness” of the liberals and lure part of the passionate electorate to themselves.
The bottom line: the regionals and Ukrainian Nazis are in the black, the national democrats and Russian Nazis are in the minus. For the left, absolutely nothing has changed.