MOSCOW, February 24. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s human rights ombudsman Vladimir Lukin has called in question the Ukrainian parliament’s right to cancel the status of the Russian language in regions.

“As far as I understand, Russian was declared as a regional language by the regional authorities, and I have no idea whether the central authorities are in the position to intervene in the affairs of regions,” Lukin told ITAR-TASS in an interview on Sunday.

“In any case, such peculiar decisions will hardly promote contacts or improve understanding among people,” Lukin said about the Ukrainian parliament’s decision to declare void the law on the basics of the state language policy.

At the moment, Russian enjoys the status of a regional language where it is the mother tongue of at least ten percent of the population.

The law took effect on August 2012. According to official sources, Russian enjoys the status of a regional one in 13 of Ukraine’s 27 regions.