Whose Ukraine? Language and Regional Factors in the 2004 and 2006 Elections in Ukraine

The article analyses why, despite non-conflictual ethnic relations in Ukraine (with the exception of Crimea), the issue of the Russian language and position of the Russian-speaking regions within Ukraine turned into a salient political issue during the 2004 presidential and 2006 parlimantary elections. It is argued that this is because the regional nature of the political divide encouraged those regionally-based opposition parties to exploit regional and linguistic differences as a ‘bargaining card’ in national politics. In particular, eastern Ukrainian elites emphasized the distinctiveness of their part of Ukraine in order to counteract the loss of power at the national level. This strategy was significantly facilitated by the ongoing controversies regarding the formal status of the Ukrainian and Russian languages, state policies as well as population’s actual preferences. In order to give the necessary background to the developments of 2004-06, the first part of the article offers a comprehensive analysis of the ethnic composition of Ukraine and the legal framework pertaining to minority rights and language politics. The second part deals with the presidential and parliamentary elections of 2004 and 2006. It aims to explain why and how regional diversity and language policy became so salient during the 2004 and 2006 elections and why this salience is likely to remain high, especially in the context of the ratification and implementation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Ukraine.