DISINFO: The Council of Europe is indifferent to discrimination of Russian-speaking people in Ukraine and the Baltic states
SUMMARY
The lack of a proper reaction to discrimination against Russian-speaking inhabitants of Ukraine and the Baltic states undermines the authority of the Council of Europe.
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The Council of Europe should not regard the glorification of Nazi collaborators and the violation of the rights of Russian-speaking people in some Post-Soviet states with indifference.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation message about the violation of human rights and freedom of speech in Ukraine and the Baltic states.
The claim that Ukraine and the Baltic states are discriminating against the Russian language and Russian-speakers is false.
The Council of Europe is not indifferent to discrimination of ethinc minorities in Europe. The European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), the human rights monitoring body under the Council of Europe monitors the situation and issues recommendations to the member states, including Russia. For example, in 2014, the ECRI expressed grave concern at serious allegations of intimidation and discrimination against Ukrainian speakers and Tatars in the Crimean region of Ukraine, under the de facto control of the Russian Federation.
The Ukrainian Law on ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a state language, passed in 2019, establishes mandatory use of the Ukrainian language in most areas of public and communal life, including the mass media, education, science, etc.
However, it is not directed against any minority. The law does not forbid the use of Russian nor other languages in private communication and religious ceremonies. Moreover, Russian and other languages can be present in book publishing, the press, including radio and television, education and the service sector. The law allows the use of other languages in the healthcare system and in law enforcement.
From 16 January 2021, according to the law, the public services sector must provide services in Ukrainian, unless a consumer asks to speak in Russian, English or other languages.
Furthermore, Ukraine and Baltic states are signatories to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. As enshrined in the Convention, people in Ukraine and the Baltic states have the right:
"to use freely and without interference his or her minority language, in private and in public, orally and in writing".
The accusation that Ukraine and the Baltic states are “falsifying and re-writing” is another recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative.
The official position of Ukraine and the Baltic states regarding WWII is based on facts, shared by the predominant majority of historians. Both Nazi Germany and the Stalinist USSR were harsh totalitarian regimes, which directly caused the deaths of tens of millions of people. Secondly, these two regimes are mutually responsible for the outbreak of WWII.
See similar cases alleging that the Baltic states, Ukraine and Poland revise history for political revenge against Russia, or that Ukrainisation is about political terror and Russophobia in Ukraine.