JRL NEWSWATCH: Russian-speaking Ukrainians want to shed ‘language of the oppressor'” – The Guardian (UK)

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“Kharkiv on country’s eastern border has long had Russian-speaking majority but things are changing fast” “… A period of official ‘Ukrainianisation’ followed the October revolution of 1917, with a lively avant garde, Ukrainian-language literary scene springing up in Kharkiv. But from 1933 onwards the novelists, poets, journalists and playwrights of this brief modernist flowering were brutally suppressed. Hundreds of writers […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Ukraine to restrict Russian books, music in latest cultural break from Moscow” – Reuters

Verkhovna Rada File Photo

“Ukraine’s parliament on Sunday [approved] two laws … [enjoying wide legislative support that would impose] severe restrictions on Russian books and music …. One law will forbid the printing of books by Russian citizens [who held Russian citizenship after the 1991 Soviet collapse], unless they renounce their Russian passport and take Ukrainian citizenship. … It will also ban the commercial […]

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RUSSIALINK: “Russian Autumn Fun: The Word’s Worth” – Moscow Times/ Michele A. Berdy

File Photo of Autumn Leaves and Wooded Trail, With Patches of Sunshine or Sky, adapted from image at fws.gov by Steven C. Welsh :: www.stevencwelsh.info :: www.stevencwelsh.com

“Осень: autumn There are, I’ve heard, places on earth where weather is not a topic of conversation. I’ve heard that in some places a few degrees up or a few degrees down is pretty much the entire range of weather events. That is not Moscow. Погода (weather) can run your life, determine when and if you go outside, raise or […]

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Interfax: Moscow accuses Kyiv of forced Ukrainization policy

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

MOSCOW. Oct 18 (Interfax) – The Russian Foreign Ministry has called on international human rights institutions to influence Kyiv over Ukraine’s discriminatory laws regarding the use of the state language in education and the media. “We call on relevant international human rights institutions, including, primarily, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human […]

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Russian Language on the Decline Thanks to English, Says Official

Map of Commonwealth of Independent States, European Portion

(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – August 29, 2017) The number of Russian speakers has decreased by about 50 million since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the chairman of the State Duma Committee for Education and Science was cited as saying by the Interfax news agency on Monday. Vyacheslav Nikonov called for an expansion of the Eurasian Union […]

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NEWSLINK: “DOES PUTIN SPEAK ENGLISH? AFTER TRUMP MEETING, THE KREMLIN WEIGHS IN” – Newsweek/ DAMIEN SHARKOV

Putin Descending a Staircase

“… Officially, besides his native Russian, Putin speaks English and German – a language he used on a daily basis in his past career for the Soviet security services (KGB) while deployed in the city of Dresden in East Germany during the 1980s. …”

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NEWSWATCH: “New Fighting in Ukraine’s Language War. If Kyiv draws new battle lines in the country’s language war, Moscow is ready to restart its side of this conflict.” – Carnegie Europe/ Thomas de Waal

Verkhovna Rada File Photo

“… Ukraine’s language wars are restarting. A bill requiring 75 percent of national television broadcasts to be in Ukrainian has just been passed by the Rada. It follows a very unpopular move by … Poroshenko to ban Russian-language social media websites …. Next up … is draft legislation that seeks to ensure ‘the functioning and use of Ukrainian as a state language in all spheres of […]

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Why study Russian? It’s not all politics

Russian Folk Singers file photo

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Ivan Savvine, special to RBTH – September 10, 2014) Ivan Savvine is an art historian and writer as well as a teacher. He was raised in St. Petersburg. There is a popular belief that in the United States, interest in all things Russian and in particular Russian language peaks at times of crisis […]

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Over Half of Ukrainians Oppose Russian as State Language – Poll

File Photo of Ukrainians with Ukrainian Flag in Public Square Near Tower with Golden Dome

(RIA Novosti – KIEV, October 16, 2013) ­ More than a half of Ukrainians are against the idea of making Russian the country’s second state language, according to a survey released by an independent Ukrainian pollster on Wednesday. Sociological Group “Rating” said 43 percent of respondents are in favor of the idea, while 51 percent are against. Five percent said […]

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Roofs and bottle caps: Deciphering Russian slang

File Photo of Crowd of Russians with One Waving Russian Flag

(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Alexey Mikheev, special to RBTH – September 19, 2013) Matryoshka, kolhkoz, sputnik, perestroika­all of these original and untranslatable words have been borrowed in other languages from Russian at one time in history or another. This happened recently with another Russian word­krysha­in English. The word krysha itself is not new and simply means “roof.” […]

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