The main goal of the law proposed by Zelensky is to reduce the number of Russian and Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine, our special correspondent Dmitry Steshin believes.
Recently, Volodymyr Zelenskyy introduced to the Rada “Bill No. 5506 on the indigenous peoples of Ukraine”, clearly dividing the citizens of his country into several varieties. It would seem that after the Third Reich and the elimination of apartheid in the Republic of South Africa, humanity will no longer return to such systems of government. The Third Reich was condemned at the Nuremberg trials, South Africa was generally condemned by the whole planet: criticism of apartheid was the only thing in which the communists and capitalists were unanimous. For some reason, Ukraine in the 21st century found itself in a privileged position – it can do anything, but not all at once. At first there was a whole series of “linguistic laws”, reducing the scope and use of the Russian language, which is spoken by 80% of the population in Independent. They began to be accepted immediately after the Maidan, thus indicating its true goal – de-Russification. Back in 2014, Russian was removed from the media, establishing “linguistic proportions”, and at the end of the process – from the education system, hinting to schoolchildren and parents that they have no future with the Russian language in Ukraine and should think hard about changing their national identity.
It all ended with “Draft Law No. 5506”, which now hangs on the Rada’s website with the status “under consideration”. And there is no doubt that they will consider and accept, as all past Russophobic laws were adopted.
The bill begins beautifully, with words about the consolidation of the Ukrainian nation. For some reason, I recall a completely schizophrenic quote from Lenin: “in order to unite, one must first decisively delimitate.” Lenin, the creator of today’s Ukraine, is not much loved in Nezalezhnaya – this year the last monuments to Ilyich were demolished , but his work lives on. And so, in order to consolidate the Ukrainian nation, it was decided to divide it into several varieties. It is curious that the Ukrainians, as an ethnos, are not mentioned in the bill, this is the Highest grade, and so it is endowed with all the necessary rights. We are talking about people of the worst quality.
First grade: “indigenous”:
“The indigenous people of Ukraine – an autochthonous ethnic community that has formed on the territory of Ukraine, is a bearer of a distinctive language and culture, has traditional, social, cultural or representative bodies, self-identifies itself as an indigenous people of Ukraine, is an ethnic minority within its population does not have its own state education for outside of Ukraine “.
Second grade, “indigenous Crimean”:
“The indigenous peoples of Ukraine, which formed on the territory of the Crimean peninsula, are the Crimean Tatars, Karaites, Krymchaks.”
Russians, Russian-speaking people and people who identify themselves as Russians fall out of the bill, it is impossible to even call them “indigenous” because of the crafty clarification: “they do not have their own state education outside of Ukraine.” Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, etc. fall into the same “defective” category.
In this humiliating re-grading, “the indigenous peoples of Ukraine living on the territory of the Crimean peninsula ” are separately designated . It is not very clear what relation Crimea has to Ukraine, but for the sake of politics, the bill turns a blind eye to this. At least for the sake of the “rights of indigenous Crimean peoples” could be used for complaints on various international political platforms, talking about the “annexation of Crimea” and “occupation of the peninsula”. At the same time, from the side of the citizens of Russia, Crimean Tatars, Karaites and Krymchaks, complaints about the infringement of rights are not heard. In contrast to the “Mejlis” banned in Russia, which is sitting in Kiev as a virtual representation of Crimea in exile. Kiev “Mejlis” (banned in the Russian Federation) suffers around the clock.