27 Sep 2017 12:47

State Duma accuses Kyiv of 'ethnocide of Russians,' prepares statement to UN

MOSCOW. Sept 27 (Interfax) - The State Duma has adopted a statement saying that the Ukraine's imposition of restrictions on education for indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities in their native languages is unacceptable.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed amendments to the law on education, which limit the possibility of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities, including Russians, to receive education in their native languages.

"The law on education signed by the president of Ukraine will become an act of ethnocide of Russian people in Ukraine," the statement adopted on Wednesday said.

"The law on education signed by the president of Ukraine on September 25, 2017 flouts basic standards of the UN and the Council of Europe on the protection of the language identity of indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities stated in the international treaties ratified by Ukraine," statement said.

The law violates the Constitution of Ukraine, Russian parliamentarians said.

The law requires that the education system become fully Ukrainian starting from 2020, which will lead to the disappearance of Russian-language schools and classes, as well as schools for other ethnic minorities.

The law "grossly encroaches on the rights of and discriminates against a considerable part of the population of Ukraine: millions of Russians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Greeks, Moldovans, Poles, Romanians, and other speakers of regional languages and the languages of minorities of Ukraine," the statement said.

The parliamentarians also called for measures to be taken to restore the violated rights of citizens of Ukraine.

The parliamentarians also stated their solidarity with the positions of the administrations of Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Moldova, Poland, and Romania, as well as some residents of Ukraine, and called on the parliaments of other countries whose official languages were recognized by Ukraine as regional languages and the languages of ethnic minorities, to take steps to condemn the adopted education law.

The State Duma said the policies of intolerance promoted by the Ukrainian authorities need to be immediately and strongly condemned by international organizations and the parliaments of European states.

The document said the statement will be sent to the United Nations, the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, and the parliaments of European states.