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Ukraine’s Tymoshenko calls for giving ‘stronger status’ to Russian language

Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko also spoke in favor of adopting "changes to the Constitution that would allow the Ukrainians to feel harmony, understanding, and integrity of their territory"

Yulia Tymoshenko EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY

Yulia Tymoshenko

© EPA/ROMAN PILIPEY

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Ukrainian parliament’s memo to grant broader powers for regions

KIEV, April 18. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, the leader of the Batkivshchyna party, has spoken in favor of a reform promoting local self-government and giving the Russian language “a stronger status.”

“There are two obvious ways,” she said. “Number one is adoption of the necessary laws and changes to the Constitution that would allow the Ukrainians to feel harmony, understanding, and integrity of their territory.”

“This implies, among other things, a much stronger local self-government, including the right to elect the local bodies of power,” said Tymoshenko, whose past political record includes performance in the capacity of prime minister. “Number two is financial independence of our regions.”

She also spoke in favor of giving “a stronger status” to the Russian language without making it clear, however, what she actually meant by this.

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