Lukashenko at CIS summit: Russian language should not be lost, it is our greatest heritage
The President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko, supported the establishment of an international organisation for the Russian language, and consideration of the relevant agreement was on the CIS summit agenda in Bishkek, BelTA reports
In his speech, the Belarusian leader called the initiative of the President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, on the establishment of an international organisation for the Russian language very timely and necessary, “You know, we all speak Russian today, so we do not feel this colossal problem so acutely. Meanwhile, look at the youth in our republics. Many people there speak Russian worse and weaker than in English and other languages. This [proficiency in Russian] is our greatest asset. We can get to the point that we will communicate through an interpreter. We should not lose the language of interethnic communication, as it is called. Moreover, I do not personally understand why we should lose it. Is he hurting us, our generation? No. It should not harm our children's generation either. This is our heritage."
Aleksandr Lukashenko stressed that he had always said that the Russian language is not the language of Russians, “It is our common language. We lived in a single state for a long time. Proceeding from the concept that a language is alive and creatively developing, we were engaged into the development of the Russian language together. It has a part of Azerbaijanis, Uzbeks, Tajiks, and so on – not only Russians and Belarusians. So why are we losing the Russian language?"
The President noted that he was pleased with the trend observed in Central Asian countries, including Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, where new schools and universities open, offering classes in Russian.
"This is not enough. Therefore, this initiative on the Russian language is no less important than some other economy-related initiatives. I am not talking about how things are with the Russian language under the former Warsaw Pact [in the states that were part of that union]. Unlike them, we do not want our youth to communicate, as I have already said, with each other through an interpreter or only in English," the Belarusian leader stressed.
