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Crimean population urged to register as Russians

11 December, 00:00

Late in the evening I was visited by my neighbor, a troubled woman who wanted advice on what nationality to report during the forthcoming population census. My first advice was to report her actual nationality, but she had earlier read a newspaper article recommending everybody declare Russian nationality to the census takers because it would supposedly guarantee considerable future benefits. I did not believe her at the time, but when I read Krymskaya pravda for November 28, 2001, it all turned out to be true. The newspaper, which has dedicated so much ink in the past to describing murky lives of Russians in Ukraine and infringements on their rights, this time excelled by carrying a front-page interview with Verkhovna Rada Deputy V. Aleksieyev called, “It Is Prestigious and Even Advantageous to be A Russian In Ukraine.” So much so, in his view, that he will advise his daughter who is of Ukrainian descent (because Aleksieyev’s wife is Ukrainian), to declare her nationality Russian during the census. What in the world could have happened?

“Under a Constitutional Court ruling of December 14, 1999, Ukrainians cannot send their children to Russian language schools,” the deputy maintains, explaining grudgingly that education can be acquired only in the state language. Representatives of ethnic minorities, however, can get education in their languages. Thus, the deputy continues, “Children from Russian families living in Ukraine will know two languages, while the Ukrainians only one,” concluding from this dubious assumption, “This is why, denied the right to learn and use the two languages (although they feel they are both Russians and Ukrainians), a large number of people faced with a tough choice during the census should declare their Russian nationality from the logical point of view and to allow for a better perspective for their children.”

The deputy’s other argument is economic. “It is no secret that Ukraine’s eastern border has been strengthened better than its western one. The commander of Ukraine’s Border Troops has been just telling us this. If a border is constructed there will eventually be border control. I believe that a visa regime will be imposed in the near future — under the ludicrous pretext to cut the flow of illegal immigrants from Afghanistan. But Ukrainians, not Afghans, will suffer in the first place.” Conversely, Russians will be able to visit the Russian Federation without visas or under simplified border-crossing procedures, the deputy continues, referring to the unofficial information supposedly received by him from Moscow.

Is it really so? I don’t mean the prestige and advantages of being Russian in Ukraine — everything is quite clear here without any comment. How true are the allegations involving education and the alleged bans? With these questions The Day’s correspondent approached Director of the Crimean Center For Independent Political Research journalist Volodymyr PRYTULA. He says, “Judging by what is going on in the peninsular media one can assume that a well targeted and coordinated propaganda campaign to deliberately distort the results of the forthcoming census has been started by some media outlets.

Mr. Aleksieyev’s allegation that Ukrainians are forbidden to send their children to Russian language schools clearly does not correspond to the truth, and there is no document imposing such a ban directly or indirectly. Suffice it to look at any school attended by children of various nationalities to realize that the deputy is trying to mislead his voters. Even the ruling by the Constitutional Court is interpreted by the lawmaker in a deliberately simplistic way. To quote Aleksieyev, “The representatives of ethnic minorities are allowed to school children in their languages,” and “only Russians can go to Russian schools.”

This is pure drivel. First, there are no restrictions or bans in the education sector, and any person of any nationality can enroll in any school. Moreover, there is no law in Ukraine permitting or banning anything to our citizens on the basis of their nationality. The same law on education stipulates that education in Ukraine is based on the Ukrainian language (same as on the Russian language in Russia). Simultaneously, the state supports ethnic minorities’ desires to acquire an education in their languages. This is a far cry from what the deputy claims. Secondly, the language scene in the Crimea is just the opposite — due to various obstacles erected to the study of the Ukrainian language and literature and the failure of the Crimean Ministry of Education to supply textbooks and teachers, graduates of the Russian language schools do not know Ukrainian. The result is that they cannot compete on the labor market. By contrast, graduates of the several existing Ukrainian schools speak excellent Russian and, with adequate proficiency in both languages, feel much more comfortable on graduation than their counterparts from Russian schools. Thus, the deputy is mixing everything up, shifting blame to the wrong party. And I would not recommend anyone, even Russians, to take his advice because by distancing oneself from things Ukrainian they stand to lose in the future.

As for the border crossing, the decisive argument here in conformity with international law is not the nationality (incidentally, not noted in passports) but one’s citizenship. Moreover, if a visa regime is imposed it applies to all citizens regardless of their ethnic identification, with no other mechanisms provided by law. This is why Deputy Aleksieyev is so ambiguous on the issue, choosing to resort merely to vague hints.

On the other hand, Local Rukh Party leader Oleh Fomushkin told The Day that, in the wake of the ongoing campaign of agitation designed to lead peninsula residents switch to the Russian nationality, a number of Ukrainian national cultural and democratic organizations have appealed to the State Statistics Committee questioning the credibility of census results on the ethnic identification of the population.

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