Paul
Goble
Staunton, June 22 – Two-thirds of
the deputies of the Verkhovna Rada have voted for a declaration calling on the
UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, and the European Parliament to focus on
Moscow’s violation of the rights of ethnic Ukrainians living in the Russian
Federation and stating that bilateral ties will depend on how Moscow treats
them in the future.
Five days ago, 229 out of 331
deputies present voted for that resolution which took note of the fact that
Moscow’s treatment of ethnic Ukrainians has become “systemically” worse in
recent years and that that “the cultural, linguistic, educational,
informational, and religious needs of the Ukrainian community in Russia” are
not being med (nazaccent.ru/content/12081-verhovnaya-rada-budet-zashishat-etnicheskih-ukraincev.html and interfax.ru/world/381334).
This resolution does three important
things. First, by taking this action, Kyiv has shown that two can play the game
the Kremlin has been pursuing. Vladimir
Putin justifies his actions in Crimea and other parts of southeastern Ukraine by
suggesting that Ukraine has failed to protect the rights of ethnic Russians
there and elsewhere.
The reality is that in Ukraine, the
Russian language is widely and freely used, there are Russian language schools
and other institutions, and there is a lively Russian-language media and unimpeded
access to Moscow outlets as well. But in Russia, the Ukrainian language is
restricted, there are few if any government-supported Ukrainian language
schools and institutions, and the Russian authorities restrict the introduction
of Ukrainian media.
By raising this issue in this way,
Kyiv not only highlights the fundamental dishonesty and hypocrisy of the
Russian government’s claims but also puts itself on record in support of
Ukrainians as a nation wherever they live, a case in which Moscow has
unintentionally promoted Ukrainian nationalism in ways that will have blowback
into the Russian Federation.
Second, with this resolution, Kyiv
is calling the attention of the world to the sad fate of Ukrainians in Russia,
to the fact that Moscow has viewed them as proto-Russians who should forget
their native language and become Russians because they are part of Moscow’s self-proclaimed
“Russian world.”
Few outside experts or observers have focused
on the ethnic Ukrainians inside the Russian Federation although many, following
Moscow’s lead have directed their attention to the ethnic Russians inside
Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada declaration should help redress that balance. (For
more information on the Ukrainians in Russia, see ukrainistika.ru/.)
Among other things, it will attract attention
to the various Ukrainian communities across the Russian Federation, including
in the Far East, and to the fact that there are more ethnic Ukrainians in that
country than the 1.9 million counted in the 2010 census. Moscow complains routinely that Kyiv has “forcibly”
re-identified ethnic Russians as Ukrainians, projecting on Ukraine what it has
done even more “forcefully” inside the Russian Federation.
And third and most important, the
Verhovna Rada declaration adds an important element to the future of
Ukrainian-Russian relations. Kyiv will
now have to insist that Russia will have to respect the rights of ethnic
Ukrainians to the degree that it wants Kyiv to respect the rights of ethnic
Russians.
Ukraine, which has a good even
impressive track record in that regard, despite Russian complaints, won’t have
any trouble meeting international standards on the treatment of ethnic
minorities. But Moscow certainly will. Demands
that it do so will generate both new expectations among ethnic Ukrainians and
other minorities in the Russian Federation and new anger among Russian
nationalists that their country should have to meet them.
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