NSDC Head Promises to Stop Closures of Russian Schools

KIEV, Ukraine -- The secretary of Ukraine’s national Security and Defense Council, Petro Poroshenko, has promised to stop the process of closures of Russian language schools, to restore Russian language instruction groups at colleges, and to create a television channel and radio stations for the country’s Russian speaking population.

“We shall see to it that Ukraine’s Russian-speaking citizens have their own television channel and their own radio stations, and that the protection of their constitutional rights be fully guaranteed. This will be done to ensure nobody should be able to play the language card again in the 2006 Parliament elections, or in any other year,” Poroshenko told a news conference in Kiev.