Kiev should launch a full-blown crackdown on those who \u201cdo not respect Ukrainians,\u201d Ruslan Koshulinsky has said<\/p>\n
Kiev should launch a full-blown crackdown on Russian speakers, threatening them with financial and criminal penalties if they are reluctant to use Ukrainian, a former deputy parliamentary speaker said on Friday.
\nKoshulinsky, who held his post from 2012 to 2014 and remains a senior figure in the far-right Svoboda party, told local media that \u201cdiscomfort for people who use the language of the occupiers\u201d must be imposed.
\n\u201dDeny education, deny work, punish with money, remove from positions \u2026 Only in this way will we oblige those people who do not honor or respect Ukrainians\u2026 These people do not understand other measures besides discomfort and financial or criminal persecution,\u201d Koshulinsky said. He added that what he calls \u201cthe Moscow language\u201d helps Russia \u201cspread its narratives\u201d among Ukrainians.<\/p>\n
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Ukrainian ombudsman warns use of Russian language on the rise<\/p>\n
Last month, language ombudsman Elena Ivanovskaya warned that harsh or coercive methods to impose Ukrainian on the country\u2019s large Russian-speaking community could backfire on the government. She said proposals for \u201clanguage patrols\u201d are both unrealistic and potentially destabilizing, calling instead for slower but steadier measures to promote Ukrainian among children.
\nIvanovskaya also sounded the alarm over the fact that the use of Russian is on the rise in daily life, particularly among younger Ukrainians, adding that it was caused by the population growing accustomed to the conflict with Russia.
\nFollowing the Western-backed coup in 2014, Kiev has adopted a series of policies aimed at curbing the use of Russian in public life \u2013 making Ukrainian mandatory in schools and state institutions, significantly tightening quotas on Russian-language media and cultural products, and restricting Russian books and music.
\nRussia has condemned Ukraine\u2019s language policies, accusing it of pursuing \u201ca violent change of the linguistic identity\u201d of its population.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kiev should launch a full-blown crackdown on those who \u201cdo not respect Ukrainians,\u201d Ruslan Koshulinsky has said Kiev should launch a full-blown crackdown on Russian speakers, threatening them with financial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t