Russian not to be official language in Ukraine - deputy premier.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

The deputy prime minister for humanitarian issues, Dmytro Tabachnyk, has said in an interview that official status for the Russian language in the draft programme of the Cabinet of Ministers was a technical mistake and the final version would repeat the constitution. The government will oppose rapid introduction of the Ukrainian language in Russian-speaking regions. The state must not interfere, he said, in creating a single national Ukrainian church. The following is an excerpt from the interview Tabachnyk gave to Oleksandr Yurchuk entitled "Dmytro Tabachnyk: Any parliamentary coalition should be guided by Voltaire's paradigm". Subheadings have been inserted editorially:

The deputy prime minister for humanitarian affairs, Dmytro Tabachnyk, has a very good memory. He can remember with equal ease when wages and pensions rose and by how much, and quote to the letter a little known poem by (?Tychyna), "The Font". It is hard to dispute with him, since Dmytro Volodymyrovych has the habit of suppressing discussion with the help of endless quotation and citing of facts. However, as for Tabachnyk's attitude to fundamental problems of humanitarian policy - the church, language, culture - there is no need to dispute. At any rate, the principle being preached by the deputy prime minister that there are no quick decisions in …