Over 40,000 people sign petition in defence of native languages

Authors of an appeal to Vladimir Putin have demanded to prevent the cancellation of compulsory studies of native languages at schools. Residents of Southern Russia also left their signatures under the petition.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 19, in the first reading, the State Duma adopted the amendments to the Federal Law "On Education", providing for the studies of the state languages at the republics of the Russian Federation "on a voluntary basis."

The petition "Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation: No law against native languages" prepared by the initiative group "For the preservation of native languages in the mandatory part of the general education curriculum" was posted on the Change.org platform three months ago, after the bill was submitted to the State Duma on April 10.

"We are seriously concerned that the possible implementation of the bill will lead to a violation of the existing balance, to a gradual reduction, and subsequently to a disappearance of the native language lessons at schools," the petition states.

According to the activists, the bill "jeopardizes the preservation of the languages of the nations in Russia and neutralizes the constitutional right of the republics to fully exercise their state languages."

As of 8:00 a.m. Moscow time, the petition got 40,031 signatures.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 4, 2018 at 08:00 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.