Russian Foreign Ministry reacts to the Ukrainian authorities’ decision to forbid e-media to speak Russian

Russia's Foreign Ministry has expressed its surprise over the decision by Ukraine’s State Information and Telecoms Committee ordering all television and radio channels to broadcast only in Ukrainian. It looks like someone from the Ukrainian Istablishment will not like Russian-Ukrainian relationships to improve as the latter were given a fresh impetus in the course of Ukrainian President Kuchma’s recent working visit to Russia, the ministry's statement says. The document also says that a library of Ukrainian-language literature was founded the other day in Moscow, while the latest steps by certain Ukrainian circles look far from friendly. So, one has to admit that the policy of “squeezing Russian out of Ukrainian media” fits into the derussianization of all the branches of Ukraine’ social life, the policy being already long pursued in the republic. As early as in 1995, broadcasting of the Mayak radio station was stopped and the ORT television channel was relegated. Quite recently, in October 2000, the Ukrainian authorities threatened to close Ukrainian radio stations retransmitting the Russkoye Radio as well as the Ukrainian versions of a number of Russian newspapers. It should also be noted that the committee’s decision will rob the overwhelming majority of the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine to receive information in Russian as they have used to. Russia’s Foreign Ministry hopes the Ukrainian authorities will revise their attitude to the Russian language as a whole, including its usage in the media, and also will honour their own laws as well the international legislation on the subject.

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