Volodymyr Lytvyn, Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, emphasizes the Necessity of Implementing the State Language Policy.
Volodymyr Lytvyn made the above-mentioned statement in the Friday´s interview to Rada television channel.
"We need effective and tolerant state policy and a relevant body in charge of it, as all the participants of the political life theoretically try to be involved in this process, while practically these problem remain unsettled", - V. Lytvyn emphasized.
Commenting upon the potential status of the Russian language as the second state language, the Head of the Parliament stated: "It is necessary to stop discussing this issue." "Under the present circumstances, if we assume that the Russian language becomes the second state language, we will actually get the only state language the Russian one. The Ukrainian would fail to stand the competition in the fields of science, information and communication", - he explained.
V. Lytvyn is convinced that due to the historical conditions, Ukraine had already become a bilingual country; hence it is not to be fixed on the legislative level. "It is necessary to promote and increase the motivation among the citizens to study the national language, the language of our country. Young generation should be aware of the fact that the knowledge of the state language preconditions everyday professional and political success", - he stated.
V. Lytvyn called for creating equal conditions for the functioning of all the languages in Ukraine. "I am against the oppression of the Russian language, although I detest the decline of Ukrainian. The conclusion is obvious: if we do not have the language (the state one), we will not have Ukraine as a state", - he stated.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine is convinced it is high time the politicians stopped speculations on the language matter. According to him, one should appreciate that the assignment of the second state language status to the Russian language is possible exclusively through the introduction of amendments to the first chapter of the Constitution of Ukraine, in the result of the referendum. He also added that the referendum would only create "another split in the Ukrainian society, which is inadmissible."