US striving to remove Russian language from Ukrainian schools curriculums

KIEV, September 14. /TASS/. The US embassy in Kiev has endorsed the law on education adopted by Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada proving that Washington ignores the opinions of the states bordering Ukraine, which have condemned that legislation, opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk said on Wednesday.

"The US embassy’s tweet comes as a signal to the Ukrainian authorities that they can ignore the indignation of Ukraine’s neighbors, even the ones that have good relations with Washington," he wrote on the official webpage of the Ukrainian Choice - Right of the People public movement.

Considering the legislative quality of the law, the embassy’s message endorsing the document looks rather strange, Medvedchuk noted.

"If it appeared following the Rada’s vote, or right after September 5, the date of the law’s adoption, one might presume that the embassy staff had read the text inattentively and had not made out its peculiar passages but the tweet appeared only on September 10, or five days after the Rada voting," he said.

"In fact, it represents a reaction to the indignation, which the law produced in Bucharest, Warsaw and Budapest," Medvedchuk wrote.

He quoted Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who described the new Ukrainian law on education as a total disgrace.

"In all appearances, the main thing the Americans are gunning for is to remove the Russian language from Ukrainian schools and for this crusade they seem to be prepared to victimize the interests of other ethnic groups living in Ukraine," Medvedchuk said.

The revamped Ukrainian law on education envisions instruction in the languages of ethnic minorities remaining in the curriculums of Ukraine’s educational system, just in elementary schools as of 2018. Meanwhile, all education in secondary and high schools and in universities will switch over to the Ukrainian language.

Hungarian top diplomat, Peter Szijjarto, noted that the law ran counter to EU values and was a stab in Hungary’s back. Hence Budapest would counteract its implementation at international venues.

The Hungarian government has turned to the European security organization OSCE, the UN and the European commission for enlargement and neighborhood policy with requests to offer their reactions to the law.