Demeur commented that he heard they had taken up hockey in the Verkovna Rada. True, I saw pictures. Howie Meeker would have been excited and Don Cherry absolutely beside himself. A great brawl. Two sent to hospital.
Reuters have a rough cut video here. If you can't beat them in the legislature, you can't beat them on the ice. Or something like that.
Yanukovych is going to lose his majority in the Rada this fall barring the most extreme fraudulent election in history; so he is trying to ram through legislation making Russian and Ukrainian equal languages in the country.
Ukrainian nationalists are not going to take this sitting down and if it is pushed could have serious repercussions. Western Ukraine, previously part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, then part of Poland, was part of the USSR from the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact in 1939 until independence in 1991. They want NOTHING to do with Russia and see the imposition of the Russian language as continuation of colonial status.
The rest of Ukraine was the crown jewel of the Russian Empire for several hundred years and Russia would obviously like to continue to exert influence over the country. From 1654 to 1775 there was some semblance of independence, greater or lesser but Catherine eliminated that when she eliminated the Zaporizhzhia Cossacks. Consequently much of Ukraine is quit Russified, especially the closer one gets to the Russian border. Many Russians live in Ukraine (and many Ukrainians live in Russia) and Russian is the first language for many of both nationalities and only language for some. For a quick overview of Ukrainian History, go HERE.
Ukraine is trying to establish itself as an independent nation and as such decided from Day One that Ukrainian would be THE national language; part of shedding of colonialism. This is going to play out rather interestingly. Stay tuned.
For more information on Ukrainian politics, check out the Kyiv Post
It doesn't look like they will come to agreement on that issue any time soon.
ReplyDeleteTwo solitudes? Who knew.
ReplyDeleteWe are just heading into October elections. There is a young doctor running from this area which would be a nice change from oligarchs and other lesser business men.
DeleteWe do away with the middleman here in Ukraine and the businessmen themselves become deputies.