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Posted by Alex on September 17, 2005 at 22:28:56:
In Reply to: Re: So what the Russophiles are bad now? posted by but of course! silly question on September 17, 2005 at 21:35:37:
I have nothing against Ukrainian being the official language of the country. I ackonwledge, accept and embrace that and have absolutely NO PROBLEM with it (even though I also believe that Russian should also be a second state language. But I have already addressed that in my previous posts). However at the same time, I do beleieve that government services should be provided to sizeable linguistic minorities. Yuschenko himself has said that and it is guranteed, indirectly albeit by the Constitution of Ukraine. Therefore completely Ukrainizing court proceedings even in mostly Russian-speaking parts of the country is first of all wrong and second, impractical as it is complicated for people especially the elderly who speak bad Ukrainian to read complicated legal jargon. As far as closing Russian-speaking schools in Crimea: A Russian school number 43 in Simferopol was threatened to be closed and another school was converted to Ukrainian because "the lack of Russian-speaking teachers" (after all the teachers for Russian were fired). As far attitudes in Eastern Ukraine go, trust me I am from there and I know - Yuschenko for these people was just the cover - once again he is very pragmatic. However they also know that Yuschenko can be easily manipulated and that the hardcore nationalists would start tearing the country apart like some of them are trying to do now. The notion of closeness to Russia is important to them, you're right and I mentioned that in my previous post. However what is more important for these people is to be able to live their own life, speak their own language and teach it to their children and observe their culture without interference or attempts to tamper with these things. As far participation in EU goes most Ukrainians (69%) support EU entry but oppose particpation in NATO (59%). http://www.korrespondent.net/main/124061
The link is in Russian, but is from Korrespondent, a pro-Yuschenko Ukrainian journal.
Therefore you cannot say that EU membership is completely not sought after by the East and NATO membership is completely sought after by the West.
: : The Ukrainization of court proceedings as of this month ...
: what you speak of is in recognization that UA is the official language of Ukraine.
: : attempts to close Russian schools in Crimea
: some of it is propaganda by Russophiles - a tv station started broadcasting in Ukrainian not because of anything but because they said that they were afraid of potential reprisals - what crock - some of this is to propel and promulgate propaganda.
: : people were afraid not so much of Yuschenko ...
: sorry that is crap - they were and are afraid of President Yushchenko - because that he would take Ukraine away from close partnership with Russia and lean it towards Europe. They had a heavens forbid concept that UA would enter into NATO or EU.
: I agree with you about not wanting UA ruled by a thug.