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Metropolitan Ahafangel of Odesa and Izmail Calls to Protect Russian Language in Ukraine

18.10.2011, 12:09
The hierarch is convinced that it is necessary to overcome such tendencies as reduction in the number of Russian schools in Ukraine.

“We are faced with a responsible task to develop concrete steps to further protect and develop the Russian language both in the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and in the diaspora,” reads an address of Metropolitan Ahafangel to the participants of the World Conference of Fellow Countrymen “On the Status of the Russian language in Foreign Countries,” which is held in Moscow. The address was passed to Interfax-religion.

According to him, one of the main problems for the divided Russian people is “constant attempts made by leaders of former Soviet republics on the basis of nationalist ideology to assimilate the Russian-speaking part of the population and to create conditions where the Russian language will be driven out from state, social, educational and cultural life.”

“In particular, I mean the Baltic countries, Moldova, Georgia and the recent Orange leadership of Ukraine, of course. It seems to the nationalist rulers that by stirring up a Russophobic hysteria and taking steps to prohibit the Russian language they will make people change their conscience, their spiritual-cultural code developed for centuries and submit to a certain ideology,” reads the address.

“It is not an exaggeration to say that the question of the preservation, protection and development of the Russian language is a part of a wider objective, namely, to defend the Orthodox civilization choice, the spiritual integrity and independence of the peoples inhabiting the vast space of the Holy Rus, the Church unity,” stressed the metropolitan.

He is convinced that it is necessary to overcome such tendencies as the reduction of the number of Russian schools in Ukraine.

“The struggle for the status of the Russian language is the struggle for real equality of the residents of Ukraine. Therefore, the questions of the state status of the Russian language, its free use in official documents, the legal field, of lifting  the criminal yet formally legalized inhuman restrictions regarding the use of the 'non-state language' on TV and radio are still on the agenda,” reads the address.