Ukrainian bus drivers face being stripped of their operating licences if
they are discovered entertaining their passengers with Russian pop music.
Local politicians in the western Ukraine city of Lviv have drafted a
language law which would take away the licences of the drivers if they
continued to play the music, according to reports on BBC News Online.
Vasyl Shelook, of Lviv City Council, said the council wanted to
"de-Russify" Ukrainian life.
"Lviv is the most Ukrainian city in the country. If we don’t preserve
our Ukrainian language we will lose our identity, so we must force people
somehow to speak our native language," he said.
It may not only be buses that are affected by the ban on Russian music. The
new law, which would come into force next year if passed, could be extended to
cover music in bars and restaurants in the city.
Lviv City Council said it was determined to protect Ukraine heritage.
"Our Ukrainian culture is under threat," said Shelook.
"Russian is everywhere in Ukraine – it’s on TV, on the internet. We
want to keep it out of public life," he added.
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Earlier this year an attempt to ban Russian-language television and radio
programmes failed after pressure from broadcasters in Ukraine and politicians
in Moscow.
It is estimated that Russian is the first language of one in five people in
Ukraine.
