[BRIEF NOTE] Ukraine's Language Wars, Postponed

[rfmcdonald]

Over at Transitions Online, Ivan Lozowy's article "Forked Tongues" expresses some surprise that the new Yushchenko government hasn't pushed more aggressively for the dominance of the Ukrainian language. Though I may be a callow visitor who has never visited Ukraine, I have to say that I'm not surprised. Ukraine is a society notable, as I observed back in November, for its permeable ethnic boundaries and the slow Ukrainianization of society. Of course Yushchenko's not going to do anything that could upset the east and reopen the question of a secession that would be as suicidal for the Donetsk basin as it would be difficult for rest-of-Ukraine, especially given the limited resources available to the Ukrainian government.