MOSCOW, February 21 (RIA Novosti) - The ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) has submitted a bill imposing fines of up to 50,000 rubles (about $1,700) on officials for using foreign words that have Russian equivalents in public, the State Duma press service said on Thursday.
The bill seeks to amend the Law on the State Language of the Russian Federation and the Code of Administrative Offenses.
LDPR deputies said the use of “American and British” loanwords, such as "diler" (dealer), "menedzher" (manager), "singl" (single), "seishn" (session), "butik" (boutique) and others should be penalized with fines of 2,000 to 2,500 rubles ($65 to $82) for individuals, 4,000 to 5,000 rubles ($131 to $164) for officials and 40,000 to 50,000 rubles ($1,315 to $1,700) for corporate entities.
In the document accompanying the proposed law, the deputies argued that there is no other effective way of combating the widespread use of such words, which is detrimental to the Russian language, on television, in parliament and in the business sphere.
Many Russian organizations unnecessarily include foreign words and expressions into their titles, the party said.
The language law should regulate all use of Russian, including not just by the government and the administration, but also in advertising and in the media.
At present, the law does not stipulate any penalties for “linguistic offenses,” the deputies said.
