ROMANIANS FROM UKRAINE – REALPOLITIK AND IDENTITY
ROMANIANS FROM UKRAINE – REALPOLITIK AND IDENTITY

Summary/Abstract: The actions of the Russian Federation resulting in the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula marked a historical moment that made the Ukrainian authorities watch more carefully the Moscow’s strategy on Russian ethnics. This moment has marked the beginning of a new stage of using nationality as a soft-power instrument. In this respect, we must consider that the Russian ethnic origin, as assumed by the majority of the Crimean Peninsula’s residents, was the factor that allowed the annexation of that region, after a referendum where the residents declared themselves Russian citizens and asked the Russian Federation to protect their rights. Fighting back, in the battle for Eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian authorities have been taking some steps to restrain the Russian Federation’s influence in the region. One of those measures consisted in the limitation of the ethnic minorities’ languages use in the schools across Ukraine. Such political decision affected not only the Russian minority, but also the other ethnic minorities belonging to the neighbouring countries, including the Romanian minority. Based on these considerations, this paper aims to assess how the ban on Romanian language’s use in schools would affect the preservation and affirmation of the ethnic identity of the Romanians from Ukraine.

• Details
• Contents