Rights of Russian-speaking population cannot be violated.

MOSCOW, February 14 (Itar-Tass) - Viktor Yanukovich, the winner of the
recent presidential elections in Ukraine, has said that the history of the
last five years convinced the Ukrainian people that it's wrong to violate
the rights of the Russian-speaking population and impose the Ukrainian
language on them against their will.
In an interview with Yevgeny Revenko, the anchorman of the Russian
weekly television news program 'Vesti Nedeli', Yanukovich said that
Ukraine had ratified the European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages which allows the application of the Russian language in Ukraine
in paperwork and records keeping, medicine and legal proceedings. He
promised that Russian would be applied in all the regions where it's
necessary.
"The rights of the Russian-speaking population are not going to be
harmed," Yanukovich emphasized.
He also admitted that awarding Ukrainian nationalist Stepan Bandera
the title of Hero of Ukraine as well as the glorification of the former
members of the UNA-UPA (Ukrainian Nationalist Army - Ukrainian Insurgent
Army) detachments, which collaborated with the Nazis, was sensitive for
Ukraine and had split the Ukrainian society.
"I will certainly consider this question without fail," Yanukovich
went on to say, adding decisions would be passed to avert incidences of
rewriting history in future.
Yanukovich promised to consider in the near future the possibility of
cancelling his predecessor's decrees on Bandera on the eve of the 65th
anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

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