A national referendum on Russian becoming a second official language in Ukraine would split the country, so each region should be able to decide the issue for itself, a Party of Regions lawmaker said on Tuesday.
"I have not been in politics that long, but I can definitely say that every election has divided the country, and the holding of a referendum on [the language] issue - you can imagine what the result would be," Vadim Kolesnichenko said at a news conference, predicting another 50-50 split..
"How can we talk about a united country, about uniting our common interests to create a unified society?" the chairman of the Russian Ukraine nongovernmental organization said.
Party of Regions leader Viktor Yanukovych received almost 50 percent of the vote in the last two presidential elections, losing to Viktor Yushchenko in 2004 but beating Yulia Tymoshenko on February 7 this year.
Yanukovych draws most of his support from the Russian-speaking east of Ukraine, while Yushchenko's stronghold is the more nationalist west of the country. Yushchenko steered a fiercely pro-Western path as president, often antagonizing Moscow, and his successor, who takes office on Thursday, is expected to move the country back towards Russia.
Kolesnichenko said that in view of the split in society, a more "balanced, tolerant policy" would be to implement the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, giving each region the opportunity to "defend the right of people to use one or another regional language.".
He said that a language referendum could then be held at some point in the future, when the people of Ukraine were ready.
Although Yanukovych has spoken positively about the role of the Russian language in Ukraine, there is little immediate prospect of changing the constitution to give it a nationwide official status.
The president-elect has said that "every region in which an overwhelming majority of people speak Russian will have the opportunity to talk in it, and [the language] will be used in all areas of life."
KIEV, February 23 (RIA Novosti)
