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Posted by Alex on September 20, 2005 at 16:38:54:
In Reply to: Re: So what the Russophiles are bad now? posted by is it fact or agitation on September 19, 2005 at 14:39:13:
The man who directly admitted to closing Russian schools was no other than the former (he resigned today due to the Verkhovna Rada's refusal to accept Yekhanurov's candidacy - he would have made a very good prime minister, I think!) Prime Minister of the Autnomous Republic of Crimea Anatolyi Matvienko. He was handpicked by Yuschenko himself for this post. According to Yuschenko, this choice was made to stabilize Crimea and unite the country. Instead during those seven months: tourism (especially from Russia) has dwindled, there were attempts to close Russian schools down (although, thankfully it was not as nearly as bad as in Latvia like some of the Russian nationalists claim) and some government services were stopped being provided in Russian and Tatar, a direct violation of the Constitutuion of the ARC that stipulates that these services must be provided in the official languages of the Autonomy which are: Ukrainian, Russian and Tatar. These factors has caused the Crimean population to be polarized even more, and now the most popular politicians there are Natalia Vitrenko (a total moron, similar to Yanukovich's wife) and Yanukovich himself. Something must be done to change this, however the actions to remedy this situation should not include closure of Russian schools and attempts to tamper with the delicate balance of Crimea's ethnic and linguistic makeup.
: : The constant argument for closing Russian schools and/or for making them Ukrainian-speaking is "the lack of Russian-speaking teachers".
: This sounds like a ploy to agitate pro-RU in Crimea and the East. And no that is not a far-fetched scenario -
: a) tv station starting broadcasting news in UA - because they said that they were afraid of reprisals - nothing from govt just their internal decision
: b) mayor of a city to discredit Yushchenko and his policies invited a "janitor" from the city building into high-level meetings and used it to smear the "listen to comman man" trend that Yushchenko was trying to instill into politicians
: c) during time of OR - banks in East said they had no money - when cashiers were asked why - they said "where do you think that $ comes from to buy sandwhiches for the protesters in Maidan" - this was nonsense of course, as the opposition was not even in control of the govt at the time nor any of its institutions
: d) though people may have changed at the top - at the local level - the same people who were for Yanukovych and Kuchma remain and they are worried that they will lose power and their jobs - so they agitate the populace who buys into it, and blames Pres. Yushchenko and the "nationalists".
: The big issue is the coming elections in March. Then potentially major changes could occur at local level and this is being fought by Russophiles with a major passion as is understood.