Kiev and Chisinau may give a chance to the Russian language

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Recently, the attitude to the Russian language and Russian culture is considered as an indicator of the foreign policy orientation of the post-Soviet states. Therefore, the attempt to narrow the scope of the Russian language or to lower its status is perceived in the rest of the world as the intention of the country taking the appropriate steps to move away from Russia and get closer to the EU and the US. This is what the Baltic countries, still struggling with the language of the “occupiers”, did a quarter of a century ago. In Estonia, where one-third of the population speaks Russian, the local politician, Riigikogu member, Sven Sester, said that the ultimate solution to the problem would be the complete eradication of this language. In Latvia, President Raymonds Vejonis approved amendments to the language law providing for the education in all secondary schools (including Russian) in the Latvian language from September 1, 2021. Ukraine followed the same path – after 2014. There, they abolished the law on regional languages that allowed ethnic minorities to study in their schools, using their native language at the level of local authorities. In Kiev, they wanted to hurt the Russians – at the last census, 10 million Ukrainian citizens identified themselves that way. However, the Hungarians were indignant, moreover – in Hungary. Budapest demanded that Kiev return the ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia the right to study in national schools, otherwise Hungary promised to boycott the Ukraine-EU summit and in general to close the way for Ukrainians to the European Union and NATO. The Hungarians keep their word: recently, at their insistence, the Ukraine-NATO summit was canceled. Against this background, the statement by the Ukrainian Minister of Interior Arsen Avakov on the prospect of returning the regional language to Donbass was unexpected. It drowned in the information flow about Putin’s meeting with Trump. Meanwhile Avakov suggested returning to the discussion of the Russian language status in the Donbass as a regional one. In the article for Ukrainska Pravda he outlined the provisions “on which there is a need to determine the extent of the compromise acceptable for the Ukrainian society”, including regarding the “temporary or permanent status of the Russian language as a regional one”. At the same time, the minister specified what Kiev will not certainly do. For instance, a federal structure with the inclusion of special status guarantees for the Donbass in the Constitution. Nevertheless, the notion of “Russian as a regional language” sounded. Most likely not by chance. At the same time, in Moldova, where the Constitutional Court previously found the law outdated, which conferred on Russian the status of the language of interethnic communication, Parliament Speaker Andrian Candu spoke in favor of adopting a new language law. “I was very surprised by the decision of the Constitutional Court that this law is outdated. In fact, nothing has changed, the Russian language has the same status as before. But I believe that there should be a law in Moldova that regulates functioning of languages,” Candu said. He noted that the parliament will have time to pass this law before the completion of the current mandate (in autumn). It should be recalled that the Transdniestrian conflict began in Moldavia with a language problem. As in the Donbass, by the way. If the statements by Avakov and Candu are continued, this can affect the public climate of both countries and help to reconcile the conflicting parties in the conflict zones. In Moldova the speaker of the parliament is supported by the president, who opposed the linguistic decision of the Constitutional Court, but it is difficult to say how the head of Ukraine will behave. However, there will be presidential elections in the country next year, and Petro Poroshenko could use the revival of the law on regional languages to raise its rating. Moreover, this will be positively assessed in the EU. And it can become a driver for the implementation of the Minsk agreements. As for the sphere of application of the Russian language in other post-Soviet countries, it narrows down everywhere. Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta