Photo: Russian MFA
"I’d like to hope that Western countries will hear the calls from Moscow," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. According to him, Russia expects them to keep their proteges in Kiev from violating the rights of national minorities, TASS reports. Lavrov made the statement after talks with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Russia is very concerned about the actions of Ukrainian authorities contravening democratic values and contradicting language and educational rights of national minorities, the Head of Foreign Ministry noted.
Earlier Sergey Lavrov said that he sent personal statements on the new Ukrainian language laws to High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, as well as to the leaders of the OSCE and the Council of Europe (CoE). None of the recipients responded.
Russkiy Mir reported that the deputies of Verkhovna Rada reviewed the draft law on the Ukrainian language. According to the document, Ukrainian should be the only state language for all spheres of public life on the territory of Ukraine. Its use will become mandatory for regulatory bodies of all levels from state to municipal. It will be the language of service sector, healthcare and education. The only domains untouched by the new law are face-to-face interactions and religion.
