Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: “What if Belgium banned French?”

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: “What if Belgium banned French?”
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: “What if Belgium banned French?”
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Sergei Lavrov † © via REUTERS

“How would France react if Belgium banned French?” With that statement in an interview with TF1, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov once again tried to clarify the purpose of the “Russian mission” in Ukraine, which is to “protect the Russian language and culture”.

jvhSource† TF1, VRT NWS

Today at 11:35

usland has been saying since the beginning of the war that an intervention in the country was necessary to denazify the country. According to Russia, there was a genocide going on against the Russians in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin literally said that when he announced the invasion.

Since February 24, the story of “denazification” and “genocide” has been repeated over and over by the Russian government, almost like a mantra. And yesterday at TF1 a variation on the same theme followed.

The intent of Russia’s “special military operation” is to protect the Russian language and culture. At that point Lavrov made the comparison with our country. He told the French journalist: “For the West, it was all the same thing that happened with the Russian language, Russian education, with the Russian media, which were banned by law. For example, how would France react if Belgium banned the French language?”

“Or what would England do if Ireland banned English?” he added. One cannot imagine that in Europe. But when it comes to Russian, nobody in Europe cares.”

The status of Russian in Ukraine has been a matter of debate for many years. Government plans to abolish the status of Russian as an officially recognized minority language also sparked unrest in the east of the country during the Maidan Revolution of 2014.

The pro-Russian government in Ukraine then fell after violent street protests and was succeeded by a government with a pro-Western stance. Since then, laws have also been passed to promote Ukrainian, much to the dismay of, among others, Russia and pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine.

The article is in Dutch

Belgium

Tags: Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Belgium banned French

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