Kremlin Spokesman Criticizes Some Provisions of Ukraine Education Law

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday subjected to severe criticism the Ukranian educational law, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The law on education, signed by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, causes concern among a number of Ukraine's neighboring countries, in particular Russia, since the Kremlin does not consider certain provisions of the law successful and modern, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday.

"We have seen, we know that many provisions of this law provoke a very strong reaction from a number of Ukraine's neighbors… Of course, [we] also have concerns. We do not consider a number of provisions of this law to be modern and successful," Peskov told reporters when asked about the Kremlin's reaction to the document and whether there were concerns about how it could affect the rights of minorities in Ukraine.

According to the new legislation, the representatives of national minorities' children will study subjects in their mother tongue at kindergartens and schools, while studying the state language at the same time. The children will take lessons in the Ukrainian language from the fifth grade with an opportunity to study their mother tongue as a separate subject. The education will be carried out only in the Ukrainian language from 2020. At the same time, the legislation stipulates the teaching of one or two disciplines in the languages of the EU countries.

On Monday, Poroshenko signed a law on education, which caused heated discussions because of the provision on the language of teaching aiming to enhance the role of the Ukrainian language in the educational process. Along with Russia, Hungarian and Romanian governments have criticized the law, saying that it violated Ukrainian Constitution, Ukraine's international obligations and the rights of national minorities in Ukraine.