Move to make Russian official language angers Ukrainians – Pittsburgh Tribune
By Reuters
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Published: Wednesday, July 4, 2012, 6:54 p.m.
Updated 24 minutes ago
KYIV — Police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse hundreds of protesters on Wednesday in Kyiv whem parliament voted to make Russian, rather than Ukrainian, the main language in schools and local government in some parts of the former Soviet republic.
The clashes occurred when protesters, led by opposition members of parliament defending the role of Ukrainian as the only state language, massed in front of a building where President Viktor Yanukovich was scheduled to hold a news briefing.
The chamber rushed the language bill through on Tuesday, minutes after a surprise proposal by a pro-Yanukovich deputy, giving opponents little time to cast their vote and prompting scuffles both in parliament and on the streets.
Though the bill needs Yanukovich’s signature and that of parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn — who has offered to quit — to become law, protesters took to the streets and stayed there overnight to bring pressure to bear on the president.
The dispute has galvanized Ukrainian opposition, weakened by the jailing of its leader, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, for seven years last October on abuse-of-office charges.
Tymoshenko faces separate tax evasion charges in a trial set to resume next week and will seek to have her initial conviction overturned in separate appeal hearings on July 12.
Ukraine kept her case largely out of sight when it co-hosted the Euro 2012 soccer tournament for three weeks in June, but Yanukovich has returned to handling fractious relations with the West and domestic political divisions.
“There are millions of us, and they cannot pretend that nothing has happened,� said Vitali Klitschko, the world heavyweight boxing champion who has founded his own opposition party — Udar (Blow), and took part in Wednesday’s protest.
The 6-foot, 7-inch Klitschko had to have his eyes washed out after being sprayed with tear gas. His left arm was bandaged because of a cut sustained in the commotion.
Protesters urged Yanukovich, who had planned a celebratory statement on a trouble-free Euro 2012, to veto the bill, which was pushed through by his own majority Party of Regions.
Opposition parties and millions who speak Ukrainian as their first language view the bill as a threat to sovereignty, keeping Ukraine in Russia’s sphere of influence after 20 years of independence after the break-up of the Soviet Union.
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