Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to Volga Federal District Mikhail Babich comments on the situation on the language issue

On November 24, Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to Volga Federal District Mikhail Babich, who arrived on a working visit in Kazan, commented on the situation on “the language issue” and fulfillment of instructions given by the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to Babich, “the language issue” is a topical matter for both Tatarstan and other national republics. He reminded that in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation the Russian language is an official language throughout the country. At the same time, the republics are guaranteed the right to establish their own official languages.

Babich emphasized that the right to study mother tongues and official languages of the republics in schools of the country is guaranteed by the education act and by the federal laws about peoples of the Russian Federation.

“It is very important to understand that the official language and the mother tongue are not the same thing. If the Tatar language is the official language of the Republic of Tatarstan, the mother tongue for people living in the republic can be either Bashkir, Chuvash, and any other language, which a citizen considers to be the native one,” Babich said.

“Unfortunately, a number of regions have interpreted the standards of the linguistic legislation in an arbitrary way and now the rights of citizens in terms of studying the Russian language are often violated and children’s parents and legal guardians are under pressure in terms of studying national languages on a mandatory basis,”  Babich noted. “In this regard, Russian President Vladimir Putin has given corresponding instructions and we have started to implement them. At this moment, the instructions of the head of the state have been implemented in all regions of the Volga Federal District, including Tatarstan.

The curricula have been changed in all republics and brought to the attention of the educational institutions. The number of academic hours of the Russian language has been brought to the standards recommended by the Russian Ministry of Education. The work on selecting the mother tongue by children or their legal guardians has been done in all regions. This work on this issue will be continued,” Babich said.

Babich emphasized that the issue of the teaching of official languages had not been fully resolved. Therefore, after Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov appealed to the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, this issue was carefully studied and the guidance on implementation of the people's rights to study the national languages has been worked out.

“For the first time ever, the curricula in terms of educational relations formed by the participants are provided an opportunity to study the official language of the republic two academic hours per week,” Babich commented on the issue. “As far as I know, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation will send the corresponding guidance to the regions in the next few days. But such decisions have been already taken in this part. Thus, the issue of studying the Russian language, mother tongues and official languages of the republic will be finally resolved legally and methodologically and the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation will be fulfilled. Regional authorities have to bring these issues to their actual execution in practice,” Babich continued.

“In this regard, I ask social organizations and politicians to stop politicizing this problem and earning useless political capital, to respect accepted decisions and provide practical assistance in their final implementation,” Babich summed up.