Reuters reported June 19 that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready to sign two new “de-Russification” laws passed by overwhelming majorities in Ukraine’s purged Verkhovna Rada. The first will prohibit the printing of books written by any Russian citizen who still held citizenship after 1991 (no reading Solzhenitzyn for your patriotic Ukrainian), unless he or she renounces it and becomes a Ukrainian citizen. The other bans the playing of music by such Russians on the media or on public transport, and increases the “quota” of purely Ukrainian language content and music on TV and radio stations—which are at this point essentially all government run or controlled.
The official explanation is that Ukrainian citizens simply won’t listen to Russian music or read Russian writers’ books, “so these laws will help Ukrainian authors share quality content” with the public.
