This opinion was expressed by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, Lamberto Zannier in an interview with RIA Novosti.
He said that he respects the aims of the Ukrainian government to increase the role of the Ukrainian language as the language of state. However, Ukraine should remain a space with diverse nationalities and diverse languages, which they should be able to use. Ukraine has in fact vowed to protect languages of minorities and regional languages in international treaties.
Lamberto of course thinks within the discourse of those international treaties, and probably sees the practice in his home country Italy as an example to follow. In Northern Italy, there are areas that have French speakers, German speakers, Slovene speakers, which get protection and rights on a local level. Likewise, regional Romance languages like Sicilian and Venetian are being protected, and developed. I don’t think he fully comprehends the desires of forces within Ukraine to conduct a policy that was last seen in Italy under Il Duce.
Insomniac Resurrected 
Ukrainians don’t need to look back to WWII Italy to find models to build cultures inimical to cultural plurality. Russia does a pretty good job promoting this kind of chauvinism today. Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones at their neighbors:
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Clearly, you don’t even understand the massage of the video you posted. Russia in fact liberalised the language sphere, which has prompted schools in Tatarstan to quit teaching Tatar. You certainly would not find a government mandating the use of Russian over Tatar in Russia. And as you can see, people in Tatarstan still can be taught in Tatar.
Likewise, whataboutism is in breach of this website’s rules, especially lame whataboutism like this. You have been warned…
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There has been no ‘liberalism’ of the language laws in Russia. This is purely Orwellian doublespeak on your part, nothing more nothing less. The video clearly indicates that the usage of Tatar in Tatarstan is being curtailed and that those administrators that retain teachers who still teach in the Tatar language are doing so in
defiance o the new law:
“Pavel Shmakov has refused to let go of his Tatar teachers in defiance of the Central Education Authority in Moscow. Last year it had ordered an end to Tatar in Tatarstan as a required subject prompting teachers to be fired…A year ago President Vladimir Putin demanded that schools in Tatarstan only teach in Russian as a required language,not in Tatar.”
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Key words: “Last year it had ordered an end to Tatar in Tatarstan as a required subject prompting teachers to be fired…” -that’s because many parents have complained about their children being taught Tatar to my knowledge, which is an extra subject of questionable use.
As far as I get it, the defiance consists in maintaining a Tatar class, that is all.
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BTW, why are you so dead set (paranoid?) in enforcing such draconian rules of censure for your website? You seem to be emulating the style of your sovok commie predecessors that you try to distance yourself from. I mean, you have to admit, your site seems rather sterile and is attracting almost non-existent participation, even though its been well publicized, positively at Karlin’s blog, that enjoys a lively and abundant following of commentators of various views and beliefs. If you’re trying to build a blog about Ukraine solely for yourself, you’re doing a great job! 🙂
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You have violated the rules of this blog around three time in this thread. The first time by initiating whataboutism, which I have no desire to engage in. My post is about Ukraine, and an Italian OSCE official, stick to the topic. You are not allowed to call me a sovok for trying to prevent shitstorms on this website. You are not allowed to make baseless assumptions about this blog, my previous post has brought in hundreds of visitors by the way. The absence of comments speaks for nothing.
I do not mind people with opposing views and would not mind having a discussion with them, provided it sticks to the topic of my posts. Which is not what you are doing. So, good bye!
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