KAZAN, Tatarstan -- Tatarstan's parliament is considering amendments to the law on its state languages after the Russian Supreme Court ordered the Tatar government to harmonize those laws with federal Russian legislation, RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service reports.
The Supreme Court in Moscow has ordered that not only official documentation in Tatarstan's state bodies, but also public announcements, posters, public advertisements, as well as ballot papers, must be printed in both Tatar and Russian.
If the order is implemented, even promotional posters for purely Tatar-language oriented cultural events will have to be published in Tatar and Russian.
Tatar activists have been complaining that such actions show that the Kremlin is pursuing a policy directed at assimilating the country's many ethnic minorities.
Moscow also forbid Tatarstan from adapting the Latin alphabet several years ago after the Tatar government passed legislation on the use of that script over Cyrillic.
The Supreme Court in Moscow has ordered that not only official documentation in Tatarstan's state bodies, but also public announcements, posters, public advertisements, as well as ballot papers, must be printed in both Tatar and Russian.
If the order is implemented, even promotional posters for purely Tatar-language oriented cultural events will have to be published in Tatar and Russian.
Tatar activists have been complaining that such actions show that the Kremlin is pursuing a policy directed at assimilating the country's many ethnic minorities.
Moscow also forbid Tatarstan from adapting the Latin alphabet several years ago after the Tatar government passed legislation on the use of that script over Cyrillic.