Kuchma: Russian language treated in Ukraine better than Ukrainian in Russia

Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma thinks the Russian language is treated in his country “far better than Ukrainian is treated in Russia.” At that, Mr. Kuchma asserts that the “Russian language has never and to no extent been foreign” in Ukraine. In his words, 11 Ukrainian colleges and 25 other higher-education institutes prepare teachers of Russian nowadays. Mr. Kuchma admits that Ukraine’s eastern regions, including the Crimea, are Russian-speaking, with all their newspapers coming out in Russian. At the same time, the Ukrainian president has made it clear that “there are some excesses with the use of Russian, the same apparently happening in Russia in relation to Ukrainian." So, “we have to seek to solve those problems together,” said the president.