The Ukrainian parliament voted to ban the distribution of Russian books and the playing or performance of Russian music by post-Soviet-era artists, the latest portrayal of Kiev that vehemently distances itself from Russian culture.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has yet to sign the bills. Both bills received broad support from lawmakers across the political spectrum, Reuters reported.
The laws will not ban all Russian media. They only block work by artists of Russian nationality after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
One law prohibits the playing of Russian-language music in public, on television and on the radio. That same law also increases the national quota for Ukrainian music and speech on television and radio.
The other law prohibits the printing of books written by Russian citizens unless the authors choose to give up their Russian passport and become citizens of Ukraine. It also blocks the books printed in Russia, Belarus and occupied Ukrainian territory from entering or being distributed.
“Administrative liability has been established for the importation and distribution of publishing products from Russia and Belarus, as well as for literature included in the register of anti-Ukrainian publishing products,” said a tweet from Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. said Sunday night.
This is just Ukraine’s latest attempt to master the language within its borders. In 2019, the government made Ukrainian the compulsory language used in most aspects of public life, including schools. Before the invasion, Russia pointed to this law to allege that Ukrainian-Russian speakers were attacked.
After that law was passed, human rights groups called on Ukraine to protect the rights of speakers of minority languages. They were alarmed again when, in January, under the leadership of Mr. Zelensky, the government began demanding that print media registered in Ukraine publish in Ukrainian.
According to researchers, an estimated one in three Ukrainians speaks Russian at home. Ukraine’s large population of Russian speakers is a legacy of centuries of domination by its more powerful neighbor. Many Russian-speaking Ukrainians – outraged by the violence of the Russian invasion – are switching to Ukrainian as a sign of defiance.
