MOSCOW, December 13 (RIA Novosti) – A bill submitted by two Russian lawmakers this week to “protect” the Russian language was littered with grammatical errors.
The deputies from the nationalist LDPR party, Yan Zelinsky and Yelena Afanasyeva, had proposed banning the use of languages other than Russian at workplaces around the country, saying that Russians become resentful when foreigners speak their native language at work.
The initiative’s brief explanatory note was just over a page long and contained about 20 errors in grammar, syntax, spelling and punctuation.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the flamboyant leader of the LDPR party, lambasted his colleagues Friday for the ironic error. “Let them show off their poor literacy in the privacy of their own homes,” he told journalists.
He said that he hadn’t yet seen the note but had ordered his assistants to bring it to him as soon as possible.
Zhirinovsky, who is known for headline-grabbing and often controversial outbursts, said that his party did not support the bill, which he called a personal initiative of the authors.
“People have a native language, and how can you ban that?” he said. “We do not approve of it [the initiative].”
