Ukraine’s parliament has passed two laws that will impose severe restrictions on Russian books and music, as Kyiv seeks to break many remaining cultural ties between the two countries after the invasion of Moscow.
A law will ban the printing of books to Russian citizens, unless they give up their Russian passport and take Ukrainian citizenship. The ban will only apply to those who held Russian citizenship after the collapse of Soviet rule in 1991.
It will also ban the commercial import of printed books into Russia, Belarus and the occupied Ukrainian territory, while requiring a special permit for the import of Russian books from any other country.
Another law will ban the reproduction of music by post-1991 Russian citizens in the media and on public transport, while increasing the share of speech and music content in Ukrainian on television and radio broadcasts.
Laws have to be signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for them to come into force, and there is no evidence to the contrary either. Both received widespread support from the entire chamber on Sunday, including lawmakers who had traditionally been considered pro-Kremlin by most of Ukraine’s media and civil society.
Ukrainian Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said he was “delighted to welcome” the new restrictions.
“The laws are designed to help Ukrainian authors share quality content with the widest possible audience, who after the Russian invasion do not accept any Russian creative product on a physical level,” the Ukrainian cabinet website said.
The new rules are the last chapter in Ukraine’s long road to removing the legacy of hundreds of years of Moscow’s rule.
Ukraine says that this process, formerly known as “decommunization,” but now more often called “de-Russification,” is needed to undo centuries of policies aimed at crushing Ukrainian identity.
Moscow disagrees, saying that Kyiv’s policies to consolidate the Ukrainian language in everyday life oppress the large number of Russian-speakers in Ukraine, whose rights he claims to maintain in what he calls his “special military operation.” .
This process gained momentum after Russia’s invasion of Crimea in 2014 and support for separatist representatives in Ukraine’s Donbas, but took on new dimensions after the start of the large-scale invasion on February 24.
Hundreds of locations in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, have already been reserved to change their name to get rid of their associations with Russia, and a Soviet-era monument celebrating the friendship of the Ukrainian people and Russian was overthrown in April, sparking applause from the assembled crowd.