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Russia vows not to ‘cancel’ those who ‘cancel Russian culture’

The events of recent decades have shown how sensitive the language problem is, Special Representative of the Russian President for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy also noted

MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Russia won't embark on a tit-for-tat ‘cancel’ crusade against other nations’ culture in response to such actions against Russian culture from some Western nations, Special Representative of the Russian President for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy told a plenary meeting of a high-level international conference on the role of indigenous languages.

"Russia doesn’t even think about cancelling any culture whatsoever," Shvydkoy stressed. All ethnic groups living in Russia "have the opportunity to speak their own language, create in their own language, work and think in their own language. As long as a language is alive, so is that nation," Shvydkoy said, addressing foreign colleagues.

According to him, the events of recent decades have shown how sensitive the language problem is, often leading to fierce conflicts and military confrontations around the world. "I think multilingualism is such an intrinsic norm of life for our country. We know that Russian is the state language of interethnic communication under the Constitution of the Russian Federation, but all languages represented in Russia have sovereign rights," he said.

A campaign of total de-Russification has been underway in Ukraine for a while now. Local authorities have prohibited the teaching of Russian language at schools, in addition to shutting down Russian literature departments in universities and removing Russian books from libraries.