03 January 2013, 12:00
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Volodymyr Rybak deems the issue regarding the status of the Russian language needs to be thoroughly studied by experts, including at the level of the Constitutional Assembly
Answering questions of the Channel 5 on Tuesday, V.Rybak stressed the necessity of unconditional adherence to the Constitution which determines the Ukrainian language as a state one.
At the same time, the Chairman of the Parliament noted that the Russian language “is not the language of national minorities”, since it is used by almost half of the population of the state. “We have to find our position today. The Constitutional Assembly is working,” he said, expressing an idea that, among other things, suggestions regarding language issue that take into account ideas of experts and public representatives, will be submitted.
Thereat, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada did not exclude the possibility that certain issues might be put to a referendum, however, a broad explanatory work should precede it, he added.
“Maybe we will have to ask people’s opinion regarding the Russian language, but amendments to the Constitution should be adopted by the Verkhovna Rada,” V.Rybak summed.