KIEV — Ukraine's Russian speakers are making a new push to upgrade the official status of the Russian language, disappointed by President Viktor Yanukovych's failure to do so even though he has tilted key policies toward Moscow.
On Wednesday, deputies from the parliamentary coalition backing Yanukovych began pushing a bill that would codify the right of Ukrainians to decide what language their children are taught in at school, and also remove Ukrainian as the sole language of the courts.
The bill amounts to redefining Ukraine as a bilingual state, Kommersant reported. But Yanukovych's opponents dismissed the bill as a tactic to shore up flagging support for the president's Party of the Regions before local elections next month.
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