Language wars: Another round in Kharkiv

Here's an AP story from the Kyiv Post about giving Russian equal standing with Ukrainian as the official languages of Kharkiv:

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Local court restores special status for Russian language in Ukrainian eastern city

KYIV (AP) - A local appeals court has restored a special status for the Russian language in an eastern city in Ukraine, officials said Wednesday.

The city council in Kharkiv voted in March to make Russian a regional language, allowing it to be used together with Ukrainian in state and public institutions as well as at universities and cultural institutions.

Local prosecutors filed a lawsuit against the decision and won the case in court. But the city council challenged the decision at the local appeals court.

The Constitution adopted by Ukraine following the 1991 Soviet collapse declared Ukrainian as the sole state language, but many Ukrainians, particularly in the east and on the southern Crimean Peninsula, consider Russian to be their native tongue.

Six regional governments and nine city councils in the east and south last year granted Russian special status – decisions that were heavily criticized by President Viktor Yushchenko.

The Party of the Regions, whose leader, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, enjoys strong support in the east and south, campaigned in elections last year on a promise to make Russian a second state language.

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The story echoes an observation I made in a previous posting -- that language is a point of controversy in Ukraine. We have the same thing in the U.S., of course; witness the "English Only / Official English" backlash against the use of Spanish.