UKRAINE SCARES OFF IMMIGRANTS

Human resources managers in Russia are welcoming Ukrainian refusal to grant to the Russian language an official status. The majority of the population in the Ukraine speaks Russian but the state language is Ukrainian. President of the Efficient Piolicy Foundation Gleb Pavlovsky says that the liberal language policy would turn the Ukraine into a strong competitor in attracting professional immigrants. Mr. Pavlovsky thinks that Kiev will keep restrictions on the use of Russian. Such linguistic policy will continue to scare off potential immigrants from the former Soviet republics. They prefer immigrating to Russia that needs professionals for its expanding economy and does not restrict usage of any languages. There are approximately 160 languages spoken in Russia with the Russian being a language of communication between all nationalities of the former USSR.
In an interview to the New Region information agency Gleb Pavlovsky said: “I have returned from Odessa. The number of Russian schools there are being artificially reduced. But the most striking is that the lessons of Russian are given in the Ukrainian language. Teachers speak broken Ukrainian which is a very beautiful language but it is beautiful when it is spoken by native speakers. Russians make fools of themselves trying to pretend to be Ukeainian speakers. It is sad”. According to Mr. Pavlovsky, Russia should avoid the mistakes of the Ukraine and should favour linguistic plurality. Gleb Pavlovsky thinks this will be a task for the next president.