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Russian receives status of regional language in Odessa

It “correlates with the language situation in Odessa, where Russian has been a means of inter-ethnic communication for several centuries”

KIEV, August 13 (Itar-Tass) — Odessa’s city council made a decision to grant to the Russian language the status of the city’s regional language.

The legislation’s press service said the decision had been supported by 73 of 11 deputies.

The council reports that Ukraine’s national census of 2001 claimed the Russian language was a native tongue for over ten percent of Odessa’s residents, thus in compliance with Ukraine’s legislation the Russian language could obtain the status of a regional language in Odessa.

Granting the regional status to the Russian language “correlates with the language situation in Odessa, where Russian has been a means of inter-ethnic communication for several centuries,” a note on the new law reads.

Earlier, Ukraine’s parliament adopted a law on the state language policies, where the Ukrainina language is the sole state language, and which expands rights for languages of ethnic minorities. The document states that a region having over ten percent of an ethnic minority may grant to the minority’s language a special status.

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