President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed the bill No. 8224 on the rights of the country's national minorities.
This was reported on the website of the Verkhovna Rada.
The document was registered on November 24 and adopted by Parliament on December 13.
The bill prohibits discrimination against national minorities and guarantees equal rights for them, including the freedom to use their native language and participate in political life.
At the same time, the document contains a ban on the "popularization and propaganda" of Russia, and also provides the authorities with the opportunity to restrict the rights and freedoms of national minorities "in the interests of national security."
“The exercise and / or protection of the rights and freedoms of persons belonging to national minorities (communities) may be limited in accordance with the law in the interests of national security, territorial integrity and public order, to prevent disorder or crime, to protect public health,” — according to the text of the bill, published on the portal of the Ukrainian Parliament.
In the explanatory note, the authors of the document emphasized that the improvement of the regulatory framework in the field of ethnopolitics of Ukraine should take into account the changes that have occurred during the years of independence, "modern European standards", as well as the challenges "associated with the armed aggression of Russia."
The adoption of the law on national minorities is one of the conditions for the start of negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU.
Recall that since the end of June, Ukraine has been the owner of the status of a candidate for EU membership.
As Zelensky said in September, the basis for negotiations with Brussels should be created by the spring of 2023.
According to him, "the completion of the unification of Europe is impossible without Ukraine."
“Consequently, it is during this winter that we must do absolutely everything in order to say in the spring: we are fully prepared to start negotiations on Ukraine's membership in the European Union.
This will be a historic moment, a historic time, when it will be an honor for Europe to host our state,” the Ukrainian leader said.
"Has been agreed with the EU"
In an interview with RT, RISS expert Oleg Nemensky noted that the adoption of the draft law on national minorities is the formal fulfillment of one of the requirements of Brussels, which is unlikely to significantly affect the process of European integration.
“This law was adopted in order to meet the formal EU criteria for the protection of the rights of national minorities.
Yes, the law contains clauses that allow you to do whatever you want with people who consider themselves Russians and speak Russian.
However, I am sure that Brussels will not pay attention to this,” Nemensky said.
In his opinion, the only issue that may concern the EU in the field of national policy concerns the rights of ethnic Hungarians.
Participants of the rally in support of the language law
RIA News
“Most likely, this law was agreed with the EU.
Now Brussels will stand up only for the Hungarians, compactly living in Transcarpathia.
If Budapest does not resent, then this means that the Hungarians have received some kind of guarantees for the protection of their rights, ”Nemensky argues.
In an interview with RT, Rostislav Ishchenko, president of the Center for System Analysis and Forecasting, noted that the document signed by Zelensky contradicts EU norms, the Constitution of Ukraine and the 1992 law on national minorities.
“What the Kyiv regime has adopted is not consistent with international law, or with the Constitution, or with other laws.
For example, the fundamental law of Ukraine establishes the right to free development and use of the Russian language, while the 1992 document rejects the possibility of any form of ethnic and linguistic discrimination.
But none of this is observed,” Ishchenko explained.
He is confident that the law on national minorities will not change the Russophobic essence of the policy of the Kyiv regime and will not lead to the abolition of discriminatory legal acts.
Recall that since 2019, Ukraine has had a law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language”, which provides for the use of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life.
After coming to power, Zelensky stated that this initiative was adopted “without a sufficiently broad preliminary discussion with the public” and promised to analyze the law for compliance with the Constitution.
As a result, in July 2021, the Constitutional Court of the country recognized the points of the document as corresponding to the basic law.
On January 16, 2022, the provisions of Art.
25 of the language law concerning the media.
They say that national and regional print media in Ukraine must be published in the state language.
An exception was made in the document for the use of English and the official languages of the European Union, as well as the languages of the Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks by the print media.
Six months later, the norms of the law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language” came into force, which provide for the imposition of fairly large fines for communicating in a non-state language.
This form of administrative responsibility applies to officials, managers and employees of enterprises, institutions and organizations of all forms of ownership.
Participants of the action in support of the law "On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a state language"
RIA News
As Ishchenko emphasized, the Kyiv policy of language discrimination is directed mainly against the Russian-speaking population.
Also in Ukraine, there is a law on indigenous peoples, which Zelensky signed in June 2021.
The list of "indigenous peoples" included the Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks.
There was no mention of the rights of Russians and other peoples living on the territory of Ukraine for centuries.
The explanatory note to the document stated that only an ethnic community that does not have its own state formation outside Ukraine can be endowed with such a status.
The law guaranteed the “indigenous peoples” the right to self-determination and the formation of their own institutions of power within the boundaries of places of compact residence, as well as the opportunity to receive education in their native language and create their own educational institutions.
The Russian authorities are extremely negative about the discriminatory laws of Kyiv.
In December, during a large press conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Ukrainian authorities were simply "squeezing out Russians and the Russian-speaking population from their historical territory."
After the start of the NWO, the Kyiv regime launched a new attack on Russian culture and the Russian language.
This time, discriminatory laws were passed by local authorities.
For example, the city councils of Nikolaev and Kyiv excluded the Russian language from their curricula.
In October, the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, on the air of the Ukrainian talk show "Big Lviv Speaks" said that the Russian language should completely disappear from the country's territory: "... as an element of hostile propaganda and brainwashing for our population".
"Complete indifference"
According to experts' forecasts, the situation of the Russian and Russian-speaking population of Ukraine will worsen regardless of the results of the Kyiv regime's attempts at European integration.
The EU has never been interested in real observance of the rights of the Russian population, political scientists remind.
“The outwardly strict norms for the protection of national minorities, which are adopted in the EU, surprisingly never extended to Russians.
We clearly saw this and continue to observe it in the example of the Baltic States, where after joining the EU in 2004, only new laws were adopted to squeeze the Russian language out of education and all public spheres, ”stated Oleg Nemensky.
So, in August of this year, the Russian-language page of the official website of the President of Latvia stopped working.
The office of the head of the republic explained this decision by the fact that the issue of communication in Russian allegedly became “very sensitive” in connection with the special operation in Ukraine.
Rally in Latvia in support of the Russian language
AFP
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Earlier this month, Latvian Justice Minister Janis Bordans told Delfi that the country was preparing a law to limit the use of the Russian language at work and in public places.
The official expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the Russian language is still in demand in Latvia.
According to Rostislav Ishchenko, the EU authorities show "complete indifference" to all cases of violation of the rights of the Russian population, which Moscow constantly focuses on.
According to the expert, Brussels "forgives" discrimination to all countries that agree to play the role of "the vanguard of the fight against Russia."
“What to talk about if the EU has long preferred not to notice that a Nazi regime has been established in Ukraine.
All the talk of European bureaucrats about democracy, legality, human rights of national minorities is nothing more than profanity.
If Kyiv continues to serve as a weapon of war against Russia, then from the standpoint of the West, it is free to adopt any laws and measures to destroy everything Russian,” Ishchenko summed up.