Staunton, June 11 – The reduction in the role of non-Russian languages and their being driven out of many public spaces even in their homelands is “no accident and no indication that a multi-lingual society cannot be built but rather evidence of the existence of an intentional state policy for building a Russian nation state,” […]
Staunton, May 24 – Vladimir Putin insists that the unity of the Russian nation and the basis of what he calls “the Russian world” depends on the Russian language, but there are “various Russian languages,” Oleg Panfilov points out, thus prompting the question: which of these can Putin in fact use to define his nation […]
Staunton, May 20 – Vladimir Putin wants to make the number of hours of Russian-language instruction in Russian schools inviolable, something that will mean non-Russian parents will be able to secure instruction in their native languages only by sacrificing other programs and thus putting the future academic and professional careers of their children at risk. […]
Staunton, December 9 – The Chuvash, a Christian Turkic nation which has its own republic in the Middle Volga, are, by virtue of their activism on behalf of their own language and culture, becoming the bridge between the Turkic nations like the Tatars and Bashkirs and the Finno-Ugric peoples like the Mari. They have traditionally […]
Staunton, December 8 – Vladimir Putin says he is concerned about “the defense and development of linguistic culture,” but he is advancing policies that threaten the future of the non-Russian languages of the country even more than they were hurt by the Russianizing and Russifying policies of the Soviet government. Not only are he and […]
Staunton, October 19 – Refugees from Ukraine apparently will not have to study non-Russian languages as required by the legislation of the non-Russian republics but instead will be exposed to more intensive Russian language instruction, yet another way in which Moscow is undermining the status of non-Russian tongues. Because of the sensitivity of language issues […]
